
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 







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ADDRESSES 



DELIVERED AT THE 



WORLD'S CONGRESS 



AND 



General- Missionary Conventions 



OF THE 



Church ok Christ 



HELD AT 



CHICAGO, IN SEPTEMBER, 189: 



*APR 6 1894 ! 



CHICAGO x!£# WAW^ 

S. vJ. CLARKE 

1893 



Fr»» u»Mi¥ 

[ WASHINGTON 







4 



4 ^P 



TO THK 

Disciples of Christ 

THROUGHOUT THE WORLD THIS VOLUME 
IS DEDICATED. 



Copyrighted by S. J. Clarke, Chicago. 



Table of Contents. 



PREFACE 5 

THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. H IV. Everest.... 9 

CHRISTIAN UNION. F. D. Power 29 

THt: CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. If. r. Moore 45 

BIBLICAL, ANTHROPOLOGY, THE KEY TO SOME RELIGIOUS PROB- 
LEMS. J. H. Garrison Si 

CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY SOLL'TION OF THE PROBLEMS OF THF 

AGE. B. J. Radford 97 

THE CHURCH AND THE MASSES. IV. D. Owen 117 

A CREED THAT NEEDS NO REVISION. E. 1 '. Zollars 133 

THE PROMISE OF CHRISTIAN UNION IX THF'. 3IONS OF THE TIMES. 

B. B. Tyler 157 

THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION. A . McLean rSi 

OUR COUNTRY AND MISSIONS. /. A. Lord 201 

DOES CHURCH EXTENSION PAY ? /. Z. Tyler 223 

CITY EVANGELIZATION. Lloyd Darsie 239 



Prefage 



When the history of this century shall be writ- 
ten, the World's Columbian Exposition and the 
World's Congress Auxiliary wall have prominent 
mention. The first set forth on a scale more 
stupendous and magnificent than had ever before 
been attempted the material progress of the race. 
The other was a presentation, on a scale equally 
comprehensive, of its intellectual, moral and spirit- 
ual advancement. 

Under the direction of the World's Congress 
Auxiliary were held a series of World's Congresses 
of Religion and a World's Parliament of Religions. 
In the Parliament of Religions, the adherents of 
many faiths met in friendly conference, for a com- 
parison of views and to acquire new truth. In the 
Congresses of Religion, each division of the great 
host of believers set forth its own distinctive his- 
tory, principles and aims. 

This volume contains the addresses delivered 
before the World's Congress of the Disciples of 
Christ, September 13 and 14, 1893; also four ad- 
dresses delivered before the General Missionary 
Conventions of the Disciples, held at the close of 
their congress. 

These great convocations were never surpassed 



PREFACE. 

— never equaled — among trie Disciples, either in 
point of numbers attending or enthusiasm, and the 
addresses presented are the ripe fruitage of their 
half-century of thought and effort for the restora- 
tion of New Testament Christianity. They are 
able discussions of great living issues, are worthy 
of careful study, and for this reason are treasured 
in permanent form in this memorial volume. 

This publication was ordered by the General 
Christian Missionary Convention, and left in charge 
of the Local Committee of the World's Congress 
of the Disciples. To the best of our ability we 
have discharged our task, and have arranged with 
the publisher that a certain amount from the sale 
of the book be paid into the treasury of the Board 
of City Missions of Chicago for the establishment 
of missions in this city. 

We commend this volume to our brotherhood, 
believing it will be not only a valuable souvenir of 
our congress and missionary conventions, but an 
inspiration for good wherever it goes. 

J. W. ALLEN, Chairman Local Committee. 
N. S. HAYNES, Secretary. 




H. W. Everest. 



THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE CHURCH OF 
CHRIST 



H. W. EVEREST, EE. D. 



The highest use of this great Columbian Exposition is 
to be found, not in its industrial, national and international 
results, but in its demonstration of man's value; of his value 
as he stands in nature's vast Machinery Hall and lays his 
hand on all physical forces; of his value as the arbiter of his 
own social and moral destiny; of his value in the sight of 
God. 

It is common to magnify the worlds above and below us, 
but to look at man through the small end of the telescope, 
and to make him appear as far away and as insignificant as 
possible. 

With some, he is merely an animal; with others, only a 
calculating, sentient and rational machine — a reptile the most 
savage, a mechanism the most dangerous, a freak of nature, 
the sport of storms, the victim of disease and death, the food 
of worms. 

In the White City, in the Anthropological Building, and 
in the southern portion of the gallery , may be found Prof. 
Ward's collection of animal specimens. Here you will find a 
glass case filled with monkeys and anthropoid apes, and in 
one corner of this case their majesties the orang-outang and 
the gorilla, beast-like and hideous to the last degree. This 
is the highest honor to which these magnates of the animal 
kingdom have ever attained, nor could they have attained to 
this if man had not prepared and placed them there. 

This is their exposition, all the rest is man's. Is it pos- 
sible that man is only an animal? Walk through the great 



io WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Fair and see for yourself how wide and deep a gulf yawns 
between the animal and man. Is it possible that a few 
ounces of fatty substance called brain matter, whether white 
or gray, whether sprinkled with a little phosphorus or not, 
are the source of all the thought and power manifested in the 
art and science of man? 

Walk through the Exposition buildings and thank God 
that you are a man and not a mere machine. Is it possible 
that man shall perish at the going down of his sun and that 
the gloom of an eternal night shall never be lifted from his 
grave? 

Again, go through that wonderful city, consider the high 
thoughts, the deep feelings, the almost divine conceptions 
manifested on every side — engine and steamship, paintings 
and statuary, libraries and educational exhibitions — and tell 
me, is it not absurd that God should lavish on man all this 
wisdom and power; that God should fill man's soul with all 
these high ambitions, these divine longings, and then to per- 
mit all to perish in death? Nay, in yonder Exposition there 
are ten thousand demonstrations that man was made in the 
image of God and is the heir of all the ages. 

Nor can we suppress the companion thought that the 
world itself is a sublime exposition of God's recognition of 
man and love for him. Walk through the earth; stand be- 
neath the open sky; listen to Nature's voices — the songs of 
the birds and the thunder's roar; read the lessons of science 
written on leaf and rock and gleaming from dewdrop and 
glowing sun; consider all the sweet and tender relations of 
human life — mother, wife and home; feel rising from the 
depths of 3 r our own soul emotions of beauty, sublimity and 
heroism, longings for truth and love, and yearnings for eternal 
life and eternal progress; but all this God has wrought; all 
this God has given. 

As far as the sky, jeweled with blazing suns, is superior 
to man's mimic domes arched with bands of steel; as Niagara 
with its mighty waters and rainbow crown is grander than the 
fountain with its electric lights; as suns and systems swinging 
through eternal ages and forever "singing as they shine, the 
hand that made us is Divine," are more sublime than all the 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. n 

enginery of the White City, so is God's demonstrations of 
man's value infinitely greater than anything man can do. 

If in all this God has manifested His regard for man, 
would He not do somewhat more, somewhat more to meet the 
higher wants of the soul, somewhat more to answer the ques- 
tions of his own prompting, somewhat more to purify, some- 
what more to beautify the human spirit, somewhat more to 
assuage human sorrow, to destroy the fear of death, to lift the 
clouds which hang over the grave, and to give assurance of 
unending life and deathless love ? 

And this somewhat more we have in the Holy Scriptures, 
in the religion of Jesus Christ, the only religion possible to 
enlighten the men of the nineteenth century ; the only religion 
that is uplifting the nations; the only religion that honors 
God and crowns man with glory and immortality. 

The agencies through which God would bring to man the 
spiritual renovation are all embodied in the kingdom of 
heaven, the kingdom or church of Christ, "the Church of 
the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ' ' 

I ask your attention to the kingdom of heaven as a great 
fact, a^ an actual existence among men, as something most 
wonderful in its conception and still more wonderful in its re- 
alization. 

Moses, before he laid down the scepter, pointed to the 
coming Messiah, to a prophet like unto himself, mediator, 
law-giver and ruler. Israel's greatest poet spoke of one who 
should sit on David's throne and at the right hand of God. 
Daniel, standing among the ruins of ancient empires and with 
the horoscope of coming ages before him, said: ' ' In the days 
of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be 
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume 
all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. ' ' 

John the Baptist proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven 
was at hand. The young carpenter of Nazareth had a divine 
conception of this kingdom, and no thought of man can ever 
equal the sublimity of that conception : a kingdom not of this 
world, yet including all nations — a dominion over the hearts 
and consciences of men; a kingdom of truth and love; a king- 



12 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

dom universal and eternal; a kingdom which He would found 
in His own ignominy and death, and the scepter of whose au- 
thority He would never lay down. 

While to all outward seeming He was but a wretched Jew- 
ish peasant, without a soldier at His beck and without a 
single denarius to pay for His burial, when as yet not a word 
of His teachings had been written, and while the blood was 
trickling down His face from the many wounds of the mock 
crown of thorns, to the scornful question of the Roman gov- 
ernor, "Art thou a king?" He said: "I am a king, and here- 
after you shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand 
of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. ' ' 

In answer to Peter's confession that He was the Christ, 
the Son of God, He said: "On this rock I will build my 
church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
And yet He died on a Roman cross, He was buried in a bor- 
rowed grave, a great stone was rolled to the door of His sep- 
ulchre, His mother's heart was pierced through with many 
sorrows, and His few Disciples were scattered abroad. 

Miraculous though it be, this conception of the Nazarene 
was more than realized. On that memorable day of Pente- 
cost, the Disciples at Jerusalem were all with one accord in 
one place. There was a sound as of a rushing, mighty wind. 
The Holy Spirit came in baptismal power and testified with 
tongues of flame that God had made that same Jesus both 
Lord and Christ. 

This was the inauguration of the kingdom of heaven. 
The prophetic utterances and symbols were fulfilled, the long 
ages of preparations were justified, the human cry for grace 
and mercy was heard, and three thousand conversions signal- 
ized this auspicious beginning. 

Is Jesus a king? He reigns more gloriously than did 
Caesar or Napoleon. Has He a kingdom? Millions of sub- 
jects bow the knee before Him and submit to His sway. Is 
His kingdom universal? He rules from shore to shore and 
from zone to zone. Is His dominion an everlasting dominion? 
It will be as lasting as the beatitudes of the Sermon on the 
Mount, and cannot perish until truth and love shall die. The 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 13 

miracle of His kingdom is only less than the miracle of Christ 
Himself. 

My theme, thns introduced, ' ' The First Century of the 
Church of Christ," I shall discuss not as a matter of church 
history, but as related to the religious movement with which 
myself and nearly a million of my brethren stand identified. 

The first Christian century is the beginning corner where 
we must place our theodolite if we would measure correctly 
the boundary lines of heaven's kingdom. It is the pow sto 
where we must place our fulcrum if we would effectively use 
the lever of the Gospel. It is the center whence streams forth 
the light of revelations over all the past and all the future, 
and around which all Bible truth revolves in more than as- 
tronomic harmony. That the first Christian century was all 
this and more is evident from several points of view. 

First. This century was the period of inauguration and 
confirmation. When did the kingdom of heaven begin on 
earth? Not when Daniel said: "In the days of these kings 
will the God of Heaven set up a kingdom ; ' ' not when John 
the Baptist proclaimed: ' 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand, ' ' 
for the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he; 
not when Jesus said: "On this rock I will build My church;" 
not when the dying malefactor prayed: "Lord remember me 
when thou comest in Thy kingdom." Jesus was not exalted 
to the right hand of power until He had suffered the humilia- 
tions of the scourge and the cross, and not until He had con- 
quered death and hell did He enter heaven leading captivity 
captive. 

The kingdom of heaven was not possible until it was an- 
nounced on earth that "God had made that same Jesus both 
L,ord and Christ." Prophets and Apostles bear witness that 
Jerusalem was the place and the last Jewish Pentecost the 
time. Isaiah predicted that the law should go forth from Mt. 
Zion and the word of the I^ord from Jerusalem. 

Peter declared that Joel's prophecy concerning the last 
days began to be fulfilled on that Pentecost, and that that was 
the beginning of the new dispensation. Thence forward in 
the sacred history the kingdom of heaven is referred to as 
an accomplished fact; sinners "are translated from the king- 



14 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

dom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son," and 
saints rejoice in the kingdom and patience of Jesns Christ. 

This position in regard to the beginning of the church of 
Christ is impregnable. All that preceded, whether it be the 
law of Moses, the utterance of the Prophets, or the work of 
Jesus, was but preparatory, while all that followed, under the 
guidance of the Apostles, was but a development and con- 
firmation of its power. 

Moreover, this century was the heroic age of the church- 
heroic like that of a nation when it declares its independence 
and sovereignty and makes that declaration good in success- 
ful warfare. The Christ had been humiliated and exalted — - 
crowned with thorns and crowned with glory. His kingdom 
had been proclaimed by the Holy Spirit sent down from 
heaven. It was to be sustained by the power of truth and 
the attractions of divine love. Its conquests were to be won, 
not by the sword, but by the preaching of the Gospel. 

Will this new and unique kingdom of the Nazarene stand? 
Will it increase? Will it triumph? The first hundred years 
gave proof that it would stand, that it would break in pieces 
all other kingdoms and endure forever. 

A second point of view presents the first Christian century 
as the culmination and explanation of all that had gone be- 
fore in the history of redemption. As the geological ages 
with their rising series of living forms were without meaning 
till man appeared, so Jewish laws and institutions have little 
meaning except as they stand revealed in the light of the 
Gospel. 

What was the meaning of sacrifice? It seems obscure 
and heathenish till we see ' ' the I^amb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world. ' ' What the meaning of the Mosaic 
tabernacle and its priestly services? None until we see its 
mysteries illumined by the correspondence between type and 
anti-type. Even some of the parables of Christ are not intel- 
ligible except in the light of subsequent facts: The sower 
who went forth to sow and who gathered a harvest accord- 
ing to the condition of the soil; the mustard seed and the 
full-grown tree; the king who went into a far country to re- 
ceive a kingdom and to return. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 15 

The results of this century fully justify the facts of re- 
demption, the divine love, the humiliation of Jesus, the min- 
istry of angels, the mission of the Holy Spirit, the garden and 
the cross, the darkness and the earthquake, the resurrection 
and the ascension, the mission of the Apostles and the Sav- 
iour's prediction of their triumph over all opposition. If 
the Bible student shall master the history of this century, the 
past will be clear and the future glorious. 

A third consideration of much importance is the fact that 
during this century the church was under the miraculous 
guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised His Apostles and 
their immediate followers the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He 
told them that He would send them another comforter, even 
the spirit of truth, whom the world could not receive. 

He commended them to wait at Jerusalem until they were 
endued with power from on high. He left the elements of 
His kingdom in chaotic conditions; Jewish ritual and prophecy 
were the only historic facts not yet built into the scheme of 
redemption; the sublime truths which He had taught rested 
only in the memories of a few devoted Disciples and were lia- 
ble to perish utterly. 

His sun had been obscured at noonday and had gone 
down in blood; His followers were disorganized and dispersed. 
It was at this juncture, when all things seemed to be at the 
worst and needing more than ever before His presence, that 
Jesus was taken from the earth. 

But the Spirit was to come and bring order out of this 
chaos. It was to lead the Apostles into all truth, to convince 
the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, to follow 
the Apostles with signs and wonders, with demonstrations 
and with power. 

The church of the first century was under the immediate 
supervision of the Holy Spirit. In fulfillment of the Saviour's 
promise it came upon the waiting Disciples with baptismal 
power. Peter and the other Apostles spoke the Gospel as the 
Spirit gave them utterance 

It was the source of wisdom, determining the matter and 
form of the Gospel proclamation, opening the door to the 
Gentiles, settling the question of difference between Jews and 



16 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Gentiles, edifying the church through spiritual gifts, inter- 
preting the Scriptures, directing the movements of evangel- 
ists, and disclosing the future. 

It was the source of power; power to heal the sick, cast 
out demons and raise the dead; power to confirm the Word 
with miraculous manifestations; power to organize the church, 
determine its officers, its sacraments and its methods of 
worship and work. 

Let it also be emphasized that the miraculous presence 
and power of the Holy Spirit were peculiar to the Apostolic 
age, to the first century of the church. The only authentic 
record of such supernatural phenomena is in the New Testa- 
ment. In the earlier and later Christian fathers, fact and 
fable are so intermingled that human wisdom cannot separate 
them. It is beyond controversy that no miraculous endow- 
ments are now in possession of the church. 

Such supposed manifestations now, whether public or 
private, whether in a Quaker meeting or a camp-meeting, 
whether prophesied by Christian scientist or faith healer, 
and whether of Protestant or Roman Catholic endorsement, 
are a delusion and a dishonor, are of man or the devil, are 
modifications of epilepsy or hypnotism, and originate in weak 
heads or in wicked hearts. 

As nature began in miracle, but now stands in the clear 
light of science, so did Christianity begin in these superhu- 
man phenomena, but it now moves on under the guidance of 
beneficent law. 

If any one claims the baptism of the Holy Spirit, let him 
speak with tongues; if he arrogates to himself the authority 
of Jesus, let him prove his apostleship by presenting his mirac- 
ulous credentials; if he claims to be the vicegerent of Christ 
and lords it over God's heritage, let him show that Heaven 
confirms his word by signs and wonders following. 

These pretenders, these fanatics and cranks, male and fe- 
male, with their lying relics and mock miracles are descend- 
ants of Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses, and area 
disgrace to the church of the nineteenth century. 

A fourth proposition is a logical inference from what I 
have said. The Christianity and the church of this first cen- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 17 

tury, as revealed and perfected by the Holy Spirit, are pre- 
sented as a finality. 

Now for more than eighteen hundred years the heavens 
have kept silence, a silence not again to be broken until the 
trump of God shall sound and the dead shall rise. 

What God has done cannot be improved upon. It has no 
deficiencies and no redundancies, and hence the apoplectic 
curse falls upon him who shall add to this finished work, or 
who shall dare to take from it. There can be no need of 
change in any respect since God and man, sin and righteous- 
ness, heaven and hell are forever the same. No authority 
has been delegated to any man, pope or council to amend or 
abolish any portion of this perfect system. It is the anti- 
Christ, that hierarch of heresy, that has presumed to change 
times and laws. 

These are the " last days," the last dispensations of the 
grace of God. We are to contend earnestly for the faith 
which was once for all delivered to the saints. The Pauline 
anathema is terribly conclusive : ' ' Though we or an angel 
from Heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that 
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." 
"As I said before, so sa}^ I now again: if any man preach 
any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let 
him be accursed;" and this anathema comes not from the 
Vatican, but from the throne of God. 

"All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower 
of the grass ; the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth 
away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever; and this is 
the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. ' ' 

This brings us logically and relentlessly to a fifth point 
of view, to the all- important conclusion that the first century 
of the Church of Christ, that the inspired record of this cen- 
tury left us by the Holy Apostles and evangelists who were 
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is the only source of 
authority in religious matters. 

' 'The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protest- 
ants. ' ' Everything must be measured and approved or disap- 
proved by the Divine standard of the New Testament. If 



18 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

creed and dogma, if sacrament and ritual do not agree with 
these Scriptures, it is because there is no light in them. 

What question can be greater than this one of religious 
authority? Who can forgive sins? Who can give commands 
which reach forward into eternity? Who can bind the con- 
science? Who can establish law for the day of judgment? 
Who can decree ordinances and governments for the church? 
And on whose rod and staff shall we lean as we go through 
the valley and shadow of death? 

The risen Christ said, "All authority in heaven and in 
earth is given unto me; go ye therefore." 

To the Apostles this authority was delegated, but to none 
others. Episcopacy and papacy alike are unsupported pre- 
tensions; the chain of succession lies in broken fragments 
which cannot be welded, nor is it linked to the throne of 
Christ. 

Councils, whether ecumenical or otherwise, and assem- 
blies, whether general or provincial, are without legislative 
authority, for a voice has come to us from the excellent glory, 
" This is my beloved Son; hear ye Him." 

Nor has any man or class of men been authorized and in- 
spired to interpret the New Testament for the rest of the 
world. That is no revelation which requires another revela- 
tion to reveal it. God has not put into the hands of any 
mortal man such an instrument of oppressions. 

The assumption that He has done so has been productive 
of evils the most tremendous; it has divided Christendom into 
hostile sects and united church and state; it has built up 
great systems of priestcraft and converted the institutions of 
religion into sources of revenue; it has drawn up creeds and 
enforced them with the sword; it has kindled the fires of mar- 
tyrdom and invented the horrors of the Inquisition; it has 
persecuted churchman and dissenter with- equal ferocity, and 
drenched many a battlefield with fraternal blood. 

Notwithstanding pope or priest, creeds or ecclesiastical 
anathemas, every man has free access to the Word of God. 
Not only may every man interpret for himself, but he must 
do so and will do so; for thought is eternally free, and neither 
men nor devils can put it in chains. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 19 

This right and duty of every man and church to come to 
the New Testament as the only source of authority this side 
of the throne of God has made it necessary that this shall be 
a science of interpretation. Coming to the same book and 
following the same rules of exposition, we shall come to the 
same conclusions. 

As in science, so in theology; the inductive system of in- 
vestigations will bring contending dogmas and factions into 
harmony. Hence with us, as a people, this science of inter- 
pretation has always occupied a prominent place. 

We build on the best text and translations of the Holy 
Scriptures; we would apply the strictest logical and grammat- 
ical law to the words and sentences; we would recognize the 
progressive character of revelation and the three distinct dis- 
pensations of the grace of God, Patriarchal, Jewish and 
Christian. 

We ask who speaks, to whom, and for what purpose? We 
distinguish between law and custom, between the permanent 
and the temporary, between the precedent and isolated 
facts. We feel bound where the Apostles have bound us; 
but where they have left us unbound to any custom or method 
of administration we are determined "to stand fast in the 
liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. ' ' 

Still further, the first century of the church is a remarka- 
ble period because the nineteenth century so regards it, be- 
cause it is the central point toward which all the great cur- 
rents of religious thought and reformation are tending. 

Every institution of the church has been changed and 
marred by unholy hands; we must go back to the first 
sources. All the streams of religious teaching have been 
polluted by theological speculations and priestly abuses; we 
must go up and drink at the fountain head. All the offices 
and organizations of the church have been prostituted to 
worldly ambition and worldly gain; we must again stand in 
the presence of the Apostles and see how they administered 
the kingdom of heaven. 

Coming back thus to this first century of the Church of 
Christ, what shall we find? What were the characteristics of 
that divinely constituted church, and what the sources of its 



2o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

power? The Apostolic church was remarkable for its ab- 
sence of several things: There was no pope, no papal palace, 
no papal bulls, no papal anathemas, no papal decrees, no 
papal nuncios. Who was Paul and who was Peter but min- 
isters by whom they believed ? 

It cannot be shown from the New Testament that Peter 
was ever at Rome. The Peter who would not receive the 
homage of Cornelius, but said: " Stand upon thy feet; for I 
also am a man, ' ' could not have endured to be called "Christ's 
Vicegerent," or " Lord God the Pope." 

The Roman pontiff was developed in after years out of an 
overgrown metropolitan bishop. The only New Testament 
prototype of the pope is Diotrephes, who loved to have the 
pre-eminence. And this I assert to be true, not as a matter 
of controversy, but of unquestioned scholarship. 

There was no hierarchy, no gradations of priestly honor, 
metropolitan archbishop, bishop, priest, monk and layman. 
Christ was the only high-priest, with no vicar on earth or in 
heaven, and the Apostles had no successors. 

All Christians were kings and priests unto God. The 
work of the church was divided among the servants of Christ, 
but there was no ecclesiastical ladder of promotion to tempt 
an unholy ambition to deeds of pride and oppression. 

We do not read of the " Right- Reverend John Mark," or 
of ' ' Cardinal Timothy, ' ' nor of ' 'Arch-Bishop Titus. ' ' These 
titles and the things they signify arose far this side of the 
first century. 

There was no ecclesiasticism, no complicated system of 
church government formed after the model of the Roman 
Empire; no " Great Iron Wheel " to crush out individual- 
ism; no Ferris wheel to elevate the few above the many. 
There was no tyranny of one church over another and no 
danger that some arch-heretic might be brought to trial and 
so disrupt the whole church. 

There was no speculative theology. They were so busy 
preaching Christ and Him crucified that they had no time to 
write out a system of divinity. They deferred many inter- 
esting questions until they should no longer ' ' see through a 
glass darkly. ' ' They gave heed to Paul's instruction: "that 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 21 

they strive not about words to no profit ; ' ' that they ' ' shun 
profane and vain babblings;" "neither give heed to fables 
and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than 
godly edifying which is in faith. ' ' 

There were no anxious-seat conversions. Then faith came 
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Then men 
received assurance of pardon through obedience to the com- 
mands of the Gospel. Then none who wanted to become 
Christians went awaj T unblessed and doubting the word and 
mercy of God. In all the Book of God }^ou will find noth- 
ing that corresponds to some modern revival scenes, unless 
it be the one enacted fry the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. 

There was no infant membership. They did not practice 
baptismal regeneration. Faith and repentance were essen- 
tial to discipleship. The New Testament furnished not a 
single example of such membership. 

There was no six months' probation. The same day that 
they made confession of faith in Jesus they were added to the 
church. They took the lambs into the fold and did not leave 
them exposed to him who goes about as a roaring lion, seek- 
ing whom he ma} r devour. 

There were no pseudo baptisms. Those who were bap- 
tized in the Holy Spirit spoke with tongues. They did not 
think that affusion was a mode of immersion. They did not 
try to bury a man in a few drops of water. It was always 
preceded by a change of heart and life. It is conceded by all 
competent scholars that immersion was the Apostolic prac- 
tice and that the Saviour Himself set the example. All the 
substitutes for New Testament baptism came up in subse- 
quent times. 

There was no Sabbath. The Jewish Christians continued 
to observe it as they did circumcision, but it had been taken 
out of the way. The Lord's da}^ the first day of the week, 
was observed by the ancient church, not as a Sabbath, not as 
a day of rest, but as a day of worship, a day consecrated to 
the Lord, a day of great religious activity. 

There was no "auricular confession," no "trans-substan- 
tiation," no "extreme unction," no "purgatory, " no "holy 
water," no "Mariolatry," no worship of the saints, no "papal 



22 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

infallibility." If you would learn about these inventions, 
you must go to an encyclopedia and not to the New Testa- 
ment. 

There was no human creed. They had a creed but it was 
divine; announced from heaven; demonstrated by the Holy 
vSpirit; needing no revision; embodying the central formatives 
built of Christianity, the belief of which gave men the power 
to become the sons of God. 

What were the positive characteristics of that Apostolic 
church ? 

It was a Christ church. That Jesus was the Christ, the 
Son of the Living God, was its creed and foundation, a creed 
announced by the Father, predicted by the Prophets, preached 
by the Apostles and confessed by every Disciple. They were 
baptized into Christ; they put on Christ; they walked in 
Christ; they died in Him. They bore His name, were im- 
bued with His spirit, followed His example and looked for- 
ward to His coming a second time without a sin-offering to 
salvation. They gave Christ the pre-eminence in all things. 

It was a Gospel church. They accepted the Gospel facts 
that Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried and that He 
rose the third day according to the Scriptures. They obeyed 
the Gospel commands to believe on the Lord Jesus, to repent, 
to confess His name, and to be baptized by His authority. 
They rejoiced in the Gospel promises, the remission of sins, 
the gift of the Holy Spirit and life eternal. They were saved 
by the Gospel, and though to the Jews a stumbling-block and 
to the Greeks foolishness, to those who believed it was the 
wisdom of God and the power of God. 

It was a people's church. It was not for the aristocratic 
or learned few, but for every man. Hence the conditions of 
the Discipleship were very simple and level to the compre- 
hension of every one who needed to be saved. They were to 
believe in Christ, turn away from sin and give a test of this 
faith and repentance in their ready obedience in baptism. 

They were not required to become experts in introspec- 
tion until they could analyze their own state of mind and 
measure the degree of faith and feeling. They were not re- 
quired to fathom the mysteries of the Trinity and the nature 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 23 

of Christ, nor to unravel the perplexities of election and free 
grace. They were not required to examine thirty-nine articles, 
more or less, and settle the most obtuse theological problems; 
if such had been the hard conditions, many youthful and ig- 
norant sinners could not have been saved. 

It was not controlled by a body of priests; but all matters 
not legislated upon by the Apostles were decided by the whole 
body of believers. It was a people's church because nothing 
was done to exclude the poor and the wretched. 

The members were gathered in from the highways and 
the hedges. They had no splendid cathedral, so elaborate in 
furnishing and with audiences so richly dressed that the poor 
man was put to shame. It did not have to build mission 
churches and come down to people, for it was itself a mission 
church and was already down among the masses. 

It was an obedient church. Its life began in obedience. 
It continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, in the 
partnership, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer. The 
Lord's death and resurrection were commemorated every week. 
They were intent upon carrying out the great commission. 
They went forward in the path of obedience though that 
path might lead to prison and to death. 

It was a free church. It did not form an unholy alliance 
with the state; was not the slave of priestcraft and supersti- 
tion; did not manacle itself with rigid creeds and customs 
until growth and knowledge in grace were impossible; was not 
subject to fate, either through an eternal election, or through 
the impotence of total depravity; but it was free to receive 
the Gospel, and just as free to reject it; free to use the best 
methods and means in carrying out the commands of Jesus; 
free in this respect to avail itself of all progress in science and 
art ; free to declare the whole counsel of God though martyr- 
dom might be the consequence; free in the highest sense, for 
the truth had made it free. 

It was a praying church. Christ, though Lord of all, set 
the example. It was while in prayer that the Holy Spirit 
came; they prayed without ceasing. No theory of God, which 
makes Him an iceberg in the sides of the north, no theory of 
law, which makes God as well as man its victim, which binds 



24 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

the Almighty so that He cannot hear and answer prayer, 
kept them from the throne of grace. 

It was a united church. They built on the foundation of 
Prophets and Apostles, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief 
corner-stone. They were united by the ' 'one Lord, one faith, 
the one baptism, by the one body, the one spirit, the one 
hope and the one Father of all. " They were not divided over 
men, for neither Paul, nor Peter, nor Apollos was willing to 
become a leader in any schismatic movement. They were not 
divided over opinions, for their differences were not exalted 
into tests of fellowship. They did not press the heads of all 
believers into the same mould, nor seek to connect their necks 
into cast iron so that they could not turn to take a new view 
of any subject. 

They did not seek to introduce the horrible monotony of 
perfect uniformity. Even Jews and Gentile dogs gathered 
and worshiped in the same congregation, for Christ was their 
peace, who had broken down the middle walls of partition be- 
tween them. The prayer of Jesus for the unity of his Disci- 
ples was gloriously answered, for the times of sectarian divis- 
ion and strife had not yet come. 

It was a missionary church. They seemed constantly to 
hear the Saviour saying: '• Go ye into all the world and 
preach the Gospel to every creature." Their energies were 
concentrated on mission work. When scattered abroad from 
Jerusalem, they went everywhere preaching the Word. 
Deacons like Stephen and Philip gained great boldness in the 
Gospel. Women were prophetesses and helpers. Evangel- 
ists went everywhere, depending on their own labor, sup- 
ported by single churches or by the combined aid of large 
districts. Missionary church ? Why, the church of the first 
century did scarcely anything else. They did not spend their 
time in learning to pronounce the party shibboleth correctly, 
nor spend the Lord's money in building up contending fac- 
tions. 

It was a suffering church. Its founder was crucified, its 
Apostles were murdered and thousands of its members were 
slaughtered to make a Roman holiday, but the blood of the 
martyrs was the seed of the church. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES'. 25 

It was a triumphant church. The combined hostility of 
Jews and Gentiles, of high-priest and Roman governor, of 
Pharisees and Greek philosophers, of depraved human na- 
ture and satanic agencies, only served to prove that the gates 
of hell could not prevail against it. 

It went forward from conquering unto conquest. Con- 
verts multiplied with wonderful rapidity — three thousand, 
five thousand, a great company of the priests, and millions 
before the close of the century. 

Country after country fell before it — Judea, Samaria, 
Phoenicia, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, the Ro- 
man Empire, Babylon, Arabia and Ethiopia. Before the 
death of the last Apostle, the whole world had heard the won- 
derful proclamation; and all this without armies, without 
steamships and railroads, without printing presses and libra- 
ries, without colleges and favoring Christian governments — all 
this in the midst of heathenism and against the most bloody 
opposition. 

Could we but reproduce the church of the first century in 
its spirit and power, with our millions of money and our mil- 
lions of men, and with our peaceable access to all tribes and 
nations of the earth, how soon all the kingdoms of this world 
would become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus 
Christ. 

As a brotherhood, nearly a million strong, this is our po- 
sition, this is our endeavor. We present no human creed and 
no human plan of confederation, but we say: ' ' Let us go back 
to the days of inspiration and infallible teaching, let us sit at 
the feet of the Apostles, let us rally around the cross. ' ' 

Here we stand; we can do no otherwise, so help us, God. 
And, if in the good time coming, whose auspicious signs are 
already apparent in the ecclesiastical sky, the contending 
churches of Christendom shall drop creeds or revise them out 
of existence, cease to glory in party names, and return to the 
church of the first century, to the foundation of Apostles and 
Prophets, they will find us a people tenting on that ground 
and lifting the banner of the cross higher and still higher. 



"'>:■■ ; v ; 



..-■' 



F. D. Power. 



CHRISTIAN UNION. 



F. D. POWER. 



Christian union is the one high, clear note of this latter 
half of the nineteenth century. The need of it is pressing, 
the desire for it deep, the prayer for it fervent, the plea for it 
powerful beyond anything that marks our present-day Chris- 
tianity. Nobody now thanks God for sects. Such praise 
could be rendered to but one being named in the Bible, and 
we are not called to give thanks to Beelzebub. Internally 
Christendom must be more irenic if external^ it would be 
more aggressive is a world-wide sentiment. The flowing 
tide is with union; the ebb with divisions. 

Originally the church was one. ' ' And when the day of 
Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in 
one place. " " The multitude of them that believed were of 
one heart and of one soul. " "As the body is one and hath 
many members, and all the members of that one body being 
many are one body, so also is Christ," or the Church of 
Christ. "There is one body." "A new commandment 
give I unto you, that you love one another," said Christ, and 
it became a proverb on the lips of the heathen, "See how 
these Christians love one another. ' ' This was not a spirit- 
ual unity merely, which men cannot see, or feel, or under- 
stand, but a unity practical, organic, visible and vital; a un- 
ity known of all men; a unity by which in three centuries 
the primitive church conquered the empire of the Caesars. 

To-day the church is divided. The curse of the Corinth- 
ians rests upon Christendom. One hundred and forty- three 
varieties of Christianity are pressed upon the American peo- 
ple. Sectarianism, with all its hellish brood: selfishness, 



3o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

competition, envy, hate, error, confusion, slander, distrust, 
weakness, waste, disintegration and death, stalks abroad. A 
kingdom divided against itself claims to be the kingdom of 
the Prince of Peace. A church split up into separate and 
often hostile camps urges upon men the gospel of unity and 
fraternity. A body torn into fragments figures as the one 
body and undertakes the work which Christ taught could 
only be accomplished through a oneness of believers. The 
world believes not, devils laugh, the pious grieve and angels 
weep. No longer is it necessary to argue the need of union; 
the one anxious question comes from all lovers of the Iyord 
Jesus: Why may not the church be one to-day as in the 
Apostolic age, and what can be done to remove the sin and 
manifold evils of division and to promote a closer and more 
effective co-operation in evangelizing the world ? 

Two things are indispensably necessary: A loyal recogni- 
tion to the fullest Scriptural extent on the part of all believers 
of the authority of Jesus Christ, and of the spirit of Jesus 
Christ. 

I. Christian union means union visible, organic, work- 
ing and effective, in Christ and under Christ, of all who are 
in spiritual union with Christ. " All authority is given unto 
Me in heaven and in earth," said Christ. " Go ye therefore 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to 
do all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the world." The 
early Christians w T ere made under this commission. ' ' Where 
two or three are gathered in My name," or by My authority, 
said Christ, ' ' there am I in the midst of them. ' ' The early 
churches thus assembled and so enjoyed this promise. 

Christ must be recognized as ' ' head over all things to His 
church." We behold Him on earth vested with power to re- 
veal God to men, to announce the law of reconciliation, to 
herald His kingdom, to call out and sanctify a people as the 
elect of God, to send forth His apostles with authority to pro- 
claim His Gospel, establish His church and administer His 
ordinances, to subdue all nations to His sceptre. We see Him 
in heaven clothed with authority to send down the Holy 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES 31 

Spirit, to lift up His followers thither, to judge mankind, to 
crown those that love Him with immortality and eternal life. 
He speaks with authority. His utterances have a force and 
meaning to which no other teacher ever pretended. He is 
dogmatic, positive, uncompromising. He puts the truth of 
what He teaches upon the basis of divine right. He declares 
Himself Saviour, Lawgiver and Judge of the human race. He 
proclaims a final word in no way to be repealed, modified or 
re-enacted. The whole theme of the Gospel is the kingdom 
and reign of the Messiah. To authenticate His claim to that 
office all His institutions are given, all His miracles wrought. 
The government is upon His shoulders. All principalities 
and powers on earth and in heaven are subject to Him. Ab- 
solute head and monarch of all angels, authorities and sover- 
eignties, celestial, terrestial and infernal, He stands a divine 
autocrat. We talk of theology and theocracy instead of Christ- 
ology and Christocracy, yet it is with the science of Christ 
and the government of Christ that we have to deal. As the 
sun is the center of our astronomical system, so is Christ in the 
spiritual universe. He is God manifest in the flesh, justified 
by the Spirit, attended by angels, announced to the Gentiles, 
believed on fry both Jew and Greek, exalted to the throne of 
the universe, proclaimed Lord of the whole creation, a royal 
majesty crowned and throned upon a thousand thousand 
heights. 

Full Scriptural recognition of this supreme authority 
means the acknowledgment of Christ alone as King and Lord, 
Prophet and Priest, Head and Center and Corner-stone of 
His church, and the rejection of every human basis as a 
ground of union for the people of God. ' ' Other foundation 
can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." 
1 ' There is one Lord. ' ' 

What has been the history of the past ? Christ has been 
dethroned. Human authority in religion has been projected 
within the sphere of the authority of the Christ. An as- 
sumed right of dictation in matters of faith and practice has 
been ascribed to fathers, councils and church courts. Party 
lines have divided the Lord's hosts, party names distin- 
guished them and party shibboleths determined their posi- 



32 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

tion. The Protestant theory, the Bible, the whole Bible, 
and nothing but the Bible, and private judgment and inter- 
pretation, the right and duty of all, has been ignored. The 
Christian doctrine, .' ' One is your Master even Christ, and all 
ye are brethren," has been lost sight of. Every school has 
set up its standards — standards directly opposed to each other 
often, each calling its formularies standards of orthodoxy — 
until it has become an exceedingly difficult problem to know 
what orthodoxy is, unless every man may say, orthodoxy is 
my opinion of Christian doctrine, and heterodoxy is your opin- 
ion of Christian doctrine, as it differs from mine. Human sys- 
tems have been substituted for the faith of Christ and for fif- 
teen hundred years have been destroying the unity of Christen- 
dom, multiplying sects, causing all manner of bitter animos- 
ities and unholy rivalries, showing no promise of ever right- 
ing the monstrous wrong, until God's people, sickened of 
alienations and dissensions, are in God's name calling a halt 
and asking, ' ' How can the unity of Christendom be re- 
stored ? ' ' 

Coming under the supreme authority of Christ, the creed 
basis of the church will be Christ. Christian union can only 
be effected upon the one corner-stone laid in Ziori, elect, prec- 
ious. A divine person is the obj ect of our faith and love and the 
theme of our preaching, not a system of doctrines. Said Mark 
Hopkins of creeds: "They displace the person of Christ 
from its proper central position as the bond of union among 
Christians. This is the bond and the only bond, and union 
through creeds is out of the question." Said Neander: 
' ' The existence and first development of the Christian 
Church rests on a historical foundation ; on the acknowledg- 
ment of the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, not on a certain 
system of ideas. That one divine fact John makes the center 
of all. There is no other test of true faith, no other law of 
Christian union, than steadfast adherence to that one funda- 
mental fact of the appearing of the divine Redeemer. ' ' Said 
Jesus in His answer to Peter's confession, "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God:" "On this rock I will 
build My church, and the powers of the unseen world shall not 
prevail against it." Here is the one original inspired creed 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 33 

of Christianity in a single article: ' ' I believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of the living God." 

With one voice will all the multitudes of Christendom 
speak to the world if Christ only be preached. ' ' Whosoever 
believeth in Me shall not abide in darkness. " " Whosoever 
believeth in Me shall never die. " " He that believeth in Me 
shall never hunger." " He that believeth in Me shall never 
thirst. " " Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy 
laden and I will give you rest." " I am the way, the truth 
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." 
W T hen the Apostles went forth, we are told they preached 
"Christ," "earnestly testified that Jesus was the Christ," 
determined not to know anything else ' ' but Christ and Him 
crucified," and when men heard, believed and would confess 
their faith they cried with Peter, l ' Thou art the Christ, the 
Son of the living God;" or with Martha, "I believe that 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of God that was to come into 
the world;" or with the Ethiopian officer, "I believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. ' ' Was not this the secret 
of the triumph of Christianity in that early day, that Christ 
was preached, the personal Saviour, and not a doctrine ? Is it 
not faith in Christ that saves and not faith in articles or dog- 
mas, opinions or traditions ? Is it not a living, loving, trust- 
ing surrender to the Lord Jesus with all the heart that brings 
the soul into reconciliation with God, makes a man a Christ- 
ian, introduces him into the one bod}-, exalts him to the fel- 
lowship of all other Christians ? W^e can understand Christ. 
A child can comprehend Him. Abstractions, speculations, 
absurdities and inconsistencies of human creeds puzzle the 
multitude. Jesus Christ as Prophet, Prince and King, the 
smallest and feeblest and humblest can love, trust and obey, 
and crying ' ' My Lord and my God ' ' can find peace. Plant 
Christ in the hearts of men and will not all error be driven 
out ? Enthrone Christ before men as ' ' Chief among ten 
thousand and altogether lovely," and will He not in this up- 
lifting draw all men unto Him ? Lay Christ as the corner- 
stone, and, as wise master builders, work in the gold and 
silver and precious stones upon this one foundation, and will 
not all parts of the building fit into each other and form 



34 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

a perfect, united, majestic whole? Bring men to Scriptural 
oneness in Christ, and will not all questions about matters 
indifferent speedily settle themselves ? Unity of faith is the 
need of Christendom, not a unity of opinion; oneness in 
Christ, not uniformity of dress or ceremony; unity upon 
Christ, not upon Martin Luther or John Calvin, Emanuel 
Swedenborg or James Arminius. Christ is the heart of 
Christianity, and to obey Christ is better than orthodoxy, and 
to hearken to Christ better than all the creed-faith in the un- 
iverse. ' ' There is one faith. ' ' 

Accepting Christ as sole authority in religion, the Church 
of Christ will be restored with all its functions as in the be- 
ginni?ig. Upon the truth that Jesus is the Christ, one church 
was founded. Where to-day is this one body, this primitive 
Christian institution ? Which one of the existing religious 
denominations can claim to be the original Church of Christ ? 
Does even the largest and most powerful of the one hundred 
and forty-three reported in the United States census publish 
itself to the world as the Church of Christ ? Nor can any 
confederation of sects represent the one body. Christian un- 
ion must be union in Christ and not a league of parties. In 
but one way can unity be achieved, not by a reformation of 
existing schools, not by returning to Geneva, or Rome, or 
Constantinople, not even by going back to the church of the 
early centuries after Christ; but by a restoration of the Apos- 
tolic order, by a return in letter and spirit, in principle and 
in practice, to the original basis of doctrine and of life, by a 
beginning again at Jerusalem. 

Is it not practicable ? Were not all the early believers bap- 
tized into one body ? Did not the most conflicting classes and 
nationalities in the beginning come together in the divine in- 
stitution — Jews and Samaritans, who had lived side by side 
in deadliest enmity; Jews and Gentiles, who for ages had 
been at variance and cast out each other as dogs; Greeks and 
barbarians, between whom existed the bitterest hostility; rich 
and poor; bond and free — all reconciled to God and to each 
other and sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus ? 
Jesus pleads with His Father: " I pray not for these alone, 
but for all them that believe on Me through their word, that 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 35 

they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, 
that they may be one is Us, that the world may believe that 
Thou hast sent Me. ' ' Would Christ ask an impossible thing, 
and upon the granting of an impossible thing have made the 
conversion of the world to depend? Paul declares to the 
Corinthians: "Whereas there is among you envying and 
strife and factions, are you not carnal and walk as men ? 
While onesaith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; 
are you not carnal ? Is Christ divided, was Paul crucified for 
you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul ? I beseech 
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions 
among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the 
same mind and in the same judgment." Would Paul de- 
nounce divisions if union was impracticable? Departures 
from the simplicity that is in Christ are responsible for more 
unbelief, discord, schism and wrong than all other causes 
combined, and however humiliating to present-day ecclesias- 
ticisms may be the surrender of time-honored dogmas and 
speculations, it is a thousand times better that we cease our 
blundering and come back to the only true source of author- 
ity in religion, and so to Apostolic foundations and Apostolic 
unity. ' ' There is one body. ' ' 

Submitting to the divine authority of the Lord Jesus, and 
ignoring all other, the ordinances will be kept as delivered to 
the church in the beginning. 

To the Disciples Christ gave the last supper, saying: 
"Take, eat; this is My body; this do in remembrance of 
Me;" and of the wine: "This is the cup of the new testa- 
ment in my blood. This do as oft as ye drink of it in 
memory of Me. ' ' To the Disciples also He gave the com- 
mission, saying: " Go, making disciples of the nations, bap- 
tizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son and 
of the Holy Spirit. ' ' Over the first of these ordinances there 
is little controversy. According to the testimony of the wis- 
est teachers of Christianity, the primitive practice of the 
church was a weekly observance of this memorial feast, and 
to the Lord's table all the Lord's people were welcome. 
Over the second, shameful conflicts have torn the church. 



36 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

And yet there is common ground here upon which Christ- 
ians may come together. Let all accept that which they 
agree to be the original expression of this institution and 
there need be no longer strife. Acting under the authority 
of Christ, the only question is, What is the baptism author- 
ized by Christ? What was the action commanded in the 
Apostolic commission, who was subject to it, and why? 
Let the appeal be made to Christ, not usage, not conven- 
ience, not church councils, but Christ. We may take His 
example. All the way from Nazareth of Galilee He jour- 
neys to be baptized by John in the Jordan River, and, 
' ' straightway coming up out of the water, the Spirit de- 
scended upon Him." We may take His words: " Except a 
man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the 
Kingdom of God. " " Go ye into all the world and preach 
the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved. ' ' We may take the Apostolic interpre- 
tation of the commission which is the only divine warrant 
the church has to-day or has ever had for administering this 
ordinance. To believers they say: ' ' Repent and be baptized, 
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the re- 
mission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Spirit;" to penitent believers: " Arise and be baptized and 
wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord;" 
to penitent obedient believers: "Ye are washed, ye are 
justified, ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus 
and by the Spirit of God;" and when we ask how this was 
done, the}^ answer: "We are buried with Christ in bap- 
tism; planted in the likeness of His death and raised in the 
likeness of His resurrection." Now, whatever controversy 
there may be in regard to the baptism of infants, in respect 
to the sprinkling or pouring of water in baptism, or in ref- 
erence to the purpose or design of baptism, one thing is cer- 
tain, one action and one alone is accepted by all Christians 
as valid Christian baptism, the immersion in water of an in- 
.telligent believer in Christ into the name of the Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit. And waiving all authority but that of 
Christ, and returning in all our faith and practice to primitive 
institutions as given by Christ, is it not possible for the unity 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 37 

of the church to be secured in respect to the ordinances of 
Christ? Is not Christian baptism essential to union with 
Christ according to the universal testimony of the creeds, and 
must it not therefore be essential to the union of Christians ? 
Would the one baptism be reckoned by the inspired Apostle 
with the one Lord and the one faith unless it were an im- 
portant item of the inspired and infallible ground of union 
and unless any change, perversion or substitution in respect 
to the subject, action, or design of this ordinance would be a 
source of dissension and faction? " There is one baptism." 

Finally recognizing the supreme authority of the Lord Je- 
sus, we shall be led by one spirit, animated by one hope, re- 
stored to the fellowship of the one God, to whom through 
Christ we say: "Our Father," not "my Father" nor "your 
Father," but "our Father," and waiting together with one 
voice before the throne we shall cry: "Worthy the Lamb to 
receive wisdom, and riches, and power, and strength, and 
honor, and glory, and blessing!" 

II. A second essential to the unity of Christendom is a 
loyal recognition in its fullest Scriptural meaning on the part 
of all Christians of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is not a 
question to be approached in the spirit of bitterness and strife. 
It is possible to be viciously sectarian in its advocacy. Cer- 
tain ones in Corinth held even the name of Christ in a fac- 
tional spirit. No process of compulsion can ever bring Chris- 
tian unity. No party can effect it by lifting up its standard 
and saying: "We are the people and all must come to us." 
No union will ever stand that is not Christian. 

Recognizing the Spirit of Christ we will pray for union. 
The spirit of unity is the spirit of prayer. We must depend 
more upon God and less upon our own plans, discussions and 
overtures. Heaven has a part here; nearness to God must 
promote the nearness of Christians to each other, and unless 
God's people are willing to bring themselves into humble 
submission to His will no effort at a closer union can be suc- 
cessful. Let the whole church come with deep, tender, 
yearning, solemn petitions to the Throne of Mercy, as Christ 
in the upper chamber in Jerusalem, and the dawn of the per- 
fect day will soon gladden the eastern skies. 



38 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Entering into the spirit and mind of Christ we will recog- 
nize ow Lore? s disciples wherever they are as brethren. "I 
pray not for these alone, but for all them that believe on Me 
through their word, that they all may be one. ' ' This prayer 
reaches out to all peoples, all lands, all ages. " He that is 
not against is for us." "Other sheep have I that are not of 
this fold, ' ' said Jesus. ' ' I am of the church of all saints and 
all saints are of my church," says the true Christian. All 
spirit of narrowness, of bigotry, of intolerance, of exclusive- 
ness, of sacerdotalism is opposed to the spirit of unity. No 
plan of Christian union can ever succeed that does not respect 
every man's liberty in Christ. No spirit can ever commend 
itself as the spirit of unity that is not as broadly catholic as 
the spirit of the Master here on His knees serving as the High 
Priest of all the human race. No progress can ever be made 
toward the bringing together of God's people unless we are 
willing to magnify our points of agreement and minimize our 
points of difference, recognize our brother's work and co-op- 
erate with him as far as we are able, and feel that Christian 
unity may be promoted and in a large measure realized in a 
united Christian service. 

Controlled by the spirit of Christ we will be willing to sac- 
rifice for the cause of unity. Jesus is on the way to Geth- 
semane. The shadow of the cross is upon Him. Self is upon 
the altar. He is about to give His life for His brethren. 
Such must be the spirit of unity. Cardinal Gibbons declared 
recently : " If I know my heart I would make any sacrifice 
for such unity of all denominations, for the Christians of this 
country united would convert the world. But let me say in 
all love there can be but one union and that in the recogni- 
tion of the Sovereign Pontiff and His authority. Any other 
union would be but one of sand. ' ' Then the cardinal is mis- 
taken when he says he would be willing to make any sacri- 
fice for this cause. Do human names for the church empha- 
size division? Do human creeds hinder the coming of a uni- 
ted Christendom? Do human substitutes for the ordinance of 
baptism as instituted by Christ occasion strife? Do human 
contentions and quibbles over mint, anise and cummin fet- 
ter and cripple the mighty giant which has the conversion of 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 39 

a world on its hands? The spirit of unity demands the put- 
ting away of these Babylonish belongings. The spirit of unity 
is the spirit of concession, the spirit of denial, the spirit that 
says: " I will eat no meat while the world stands if it make 
my brother to offend ! " "I would not surrender my de- 
nominational name for the world. No, not for the world; 
but for Christ's sake I will gladly surrender it!" 

Moved by the spirit of Christ we shall above all else be 
inspired to love our brethren. The spirit of sectarianism is 
the spirit of hatred; the spirit of unity is the spirit of love. 
Who can ever sound the depths of the heart of Jesus as He 
pleads; " I pray not for these alone, but for all that believe on 
Me through their word." How can we ever be worthy of 
the exalted condition He asks for us, "As thou Father art in 
Me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in Us, " unless thor- 
oughly dominated by this principle ? ' ' Forbearing one an- 
other in love and endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit 
in the bonds of peace, all barriers must be removed as if 
straws. The thirteenth of First Corinthians must go with the 
seventeenth of John in accomplishing the unity of Christen- 
dom. The fruits of the Spirit of Christ in us are " love, joy, 
peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith," and when 
these are exhibited in the lives of Christian men and women 
everywhere the unity of the church will be mightily hastened. 
We shall not have restored Christianity according to the 
Apostles until faith, hope and love are exalted to their true 
positions. ' ' There is a more excellent way. ' ' 

Such has not been the spirit of the past. " Show me 
the peaceful reign of the Messiah, ' ' said a Jewish rabbi, "and 
I will be a Christian, and not before." Do you want schools 
on your reservation?" was asked of Chief Joseph of the Nez 
Perces tribe of Indians. "No," was the redman's emphatic 
answer, " No; the schools will bring us churches." "Don't 
you want churches?" " No, no; they will teach us to quar- 
rel about God as Protestants and Catholics do. We fight 
each other, but we don't want to fight about God." 

The world in its disunity was Babel; men were strangers, 
barbarians, aliens, Scythians — anything but brethren. Christ 
came teaching a new dispensation. Love was the new law, 



4 o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

and men began to realize they were one family. They had 
all things in common. They were no more strangers and 
aliens, but fellow- citizens of the saints and of the household 
of God, children of one Father, citizens of one Republic, 
brethren. So the work went forward until pagan temples 
crumbled, idols fell upon their faces, philosophers were con- 
victed of their folly, the Roman eagle was hurled from the 
throne of the Caesars, the standard of the cross was borne be- 
fore the standards of all nations. To-day the same results 
may be reached in less than three centuries with the same 
concentrated effort. Are we not seeking the same end — the 
repairing of the evils wrought by sin, and the joy of a meet- 
ing before the throne? Two Scotchmen, a burgher and an 
anti-burgher, both lived in the same house, but at opposite 
ends. It was the bargain that each should keep his side of 
the house well thatched. When the dispute between their 
respective kirks grew hot the two neighbors ceased to speak 
to each other. But one day it happened they were both on 
the roof at the same time, each repairing the slope on his own 
side, and when they had worked up to the top there they were 
face to face. They could not flee, so at last Andrew took 
off his cap, and, scratching his head, exclaimed: "Johnny, 
you and me, I think, hae been very foolish to dispute as we hae 
done concerning Christ's will aboot our kirks, until we hae 
clean forgot His will aboot ourselves. Whatever' s wrang, its 
perfectly certain it can never be right to be unneighborly, un- 
civil, unkind, in fac' to hate one anither. Na, na, that's the 
deevil's wark and na God's. Noo, it strikes me that maybe 
its wi' the kirk as wi' this house — ye' re warking on ane side 
and me on t'ither, but if we only do our work weel we will 
meet at the tap at last. Gie us yer han' auld neighbor. ' ' 

My brethren, Demas is waking. He looks upon much ot 
this state of things as belonging to the paganism of the priest- 
hood. The people are tired of our differences; let their lead- 
ers confess and forsake their sins, and the great multitudes of 
Christendom will join hands. Educate the masters, is a 
needful word. Are we ever tempted to forget that we are 
Christians? Let us return to the spirit of Christ. Do we ask 
the kingdoms of this world to dissolve their armaments, to 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 41 

decree that there shall be no more war? Let us see that in 
the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace the drum-beat of civil con- 
flict is hushed. Do we speculate about a universal language 
and so predict the unity and co-operation of the human race? 
Let us who have our speech ordained of heaven all speak the 
same thing and preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond 
of peace. Do we desire for our King that He may have the 
heathen for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for His possession, and that the kingdoms of this world 
shall become His kingdom? Let us pray with Him that all 
His people may be one, that the world may believe. As the 
President of the United States by touching a button set the 
great machinery of this World's Fair in motion with one 
united purpose, started the play of fountains, unfurled thou- 
sands of flags and banners in an instant, quickened all the 
stupendous forces of nature harnessed here to do man's will 
and to go forward in unity and harmony, so may the Spirit of 
the Son of God quicken and move His people to their com- 
mon service and their common victory. 




W. T. Moore. 



THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 



W. T. MOORE, M. A., LL.D. 



The future is hope' s paradise. Within this beautiful realm 
is to be found the antidote for all our political, social and re- 
ligious disorders. It is, to most of us, a world of untold de- 
lights and infinite possibilities. In short, it is the 4 ' home, 
sweet home' ' of that ' ' good time coming' ' of which we have 
all been dreaming, and concerning which we have so often 
been disappointed. 

And yet this future is practically an unexplored land. Re- 
ally we know nothing about it. It is true we are always in 
sight of it, but have never actually entered it; for, like the 
mirage of the desert, it changes its position the moment we 
change ours. It lies just beyond the narrow strait which we 
call the present, and which separates us from the ever-reced- 
ing past. We are constantly sailing along the shores of this 
enchanting paradise, and 3-et we are never permitted to press 
our feet upon its untrodden soil. We often strain our aching 
eyes to catch some clear gleam from the mountain peaks to 
which hope impels us to look; but, alas! the light of the future 
land does not suit our eyes, and consequently when we open 
the door of our souls for some sweet vision, like the dreamer in 
Poe's " Raven," we see "darkness there and nothing more. " 

Nevertheless, it is still true that we are saved by hope; 
saved from the despondency which would inevitably over- 
whelm us if shut up wholly to recollections of the past and 
perplexities of the present. And especially would this be the 
case when considering religious matters. The past is full of 
disappointment as regards everything, and in nothing is this 



46 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

disappointment more distinctly realized than in the achieve- 
ments of the post Apostolic Church. At any rate, I think it is 
impossible for any intelligent, honest student of church his- 
tory to be satisfied with what the historic church has accom- 
plished. Undoubtedly a great deal has been done, and no 
one is more ready to acknowledge this than I am; and yet it 
is simply impossible to accept with entire satisfaction the facts 
of our religious development. Whatever may be the excuses 
offered, it is nevertheless certainly true that the success of 
the church in the past has not been commensurate with the 
vast energies and means which have constantly been placed 
under contribution. 

I do not now stop to account for this failure, though much 
could be said in explanation of it without charging anyone 
with willful departure from New Testament teaching, or want 
of earnestness in doing the work of the Lord. However, in 
view of what the past actually has been, it is not surprising 
that many are turning their faces to the future and anxiously 
looking for the realization of the church which has so far ex- 
isted in the world only as an ideal. 

And it now falls to my lot to make an honest effort to 
formulate a church of the future that will bring the real and 
ideal church into practical unity, and thus present to the 
world the conception of the church which is found in the New 
Testament Scriptures, and which will at the same time sat- 
isfy the ardent hopes of those who have waited long and pa- 
tiently for the realization of the prophetic vision which the 
apocalyptic seer so vividly sketches in the last two chapters 
of the Book of Revelation. 

And it will help us just here to a better understanding of 
the whole question if I indicate in a comprehensive generali- 
zation the main standpoints from which the church must be 
viewed when considered with respect to its whole history. 

( i ) . The first and most important of these standpoints is 
that which reveals to us the Divine ideal of the church. 
This ideal can only be found in the New Testament, where 
the Holy Spirit describes the church as "without spot or 
wrinkle, or any such thing," being "holy and without blem- 
ish. ' ' But surely no such church as this has ever yet been 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 47 

realized in human experience. Not even in Apostolic times 
did the church fully reach this splendid ideal. And the 
reason for it is not far to seek. The ideal represents the Di- 
vine perfection, but the real or historic church has always 
been more or less affected by human weakness. The first is 
what God would have the church to be; the second is what 
it has always been, in view of the fact that the church in his- 
tory simply illustrates the struggles of human weakness to 
reach the perfection of the Divine. 

(2). The fact just stated makes it necessary for us to 
distinguish sharply between the church described in the New 
Testament and the church as it has existed in human history. 
The latter is practically in many respects a different church 
from the former, and this difference is at many points so de- 
cided that we are justified in speaking of the historic church 
as practically a distinct and separate organization from the 
church described in the New Testament. And yet there are 
many points of identity between the two, and this fact leads 
me to suggest that the church of history must be reckoned 
with in any honest effort to deal with the characteristics of the 
church of the future. In fact, it may be well to take an hon- 
est look at the church of the present day before attempting to 
indicate what the church of the future will be. 

(3) . This brings me to consider a most important factor 
in connection with the law of development. It must never 
be forgotten that the church of the present day is the prod- 
uct of a number of complex and often conflicting forces. It 
is really the result of a compound, the parts of which are not 
always easily detected by even the most trustworthy tests. 
However, there are a few elements entering into the com- 
pound which cannot be mistaken by anyone who is at all ac- 
quainted with ecclesiastical chemistry. Among these ele- 
ments must be mentioned, first and most important, the Di- 
vine ideal of the church as it is given in the Word of God. 
But this ideal has been filtered through the solution of human 
weakness, and has certainly been brought into contact with 
an environment tainted not only with weakness, but also with 
sin, and the consequence has been precisely what every reas- 
onable person could readily anticipate — namely, a church 



4 8 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

closely allied to the Divine in principle and aim, but very far 
from the Divine in character and work. And just here we 
are lifted to a high promontory, from which we can survey 
the whole field of religious controversy, and at the same time 
find the solution of many problems which would otherwise be 
perplexing. 

A distinguished French writer has truly said that ' ' Ev- 
ery religion has two factors, God and man, in other words, 
the truth, and the human mind, which, more or less perfectly , 
grasps this truth. When any religion claims to have only 
God for Father, and to reach us without any passing through 
minds like our own, it labors under a mere illusion; this is 
not a mystery to be sure, but a chimera. ' ' And it is pre- 
cisely this fact which is most frequently overlooked by many 
who study the Christian religion. They either reckon with 
God only, or man only; but, to do justice to every question 
involved, they should reckon with both God and man. It is 
not enough to determine even definitely what is the truth in 
any given case, but we must also determine what that truth 
will be when it passes into human experience. It is one 
thing to consider truth in the abstract, and it is quite another 
to consider it in human life. In the first case, it may be very 
beautiful to look at. We may even lock it up in some place 
where it will be secure from the contaminating influences of 
human struggle; but when truth is thus considered it is re- 
ally of no practical importance. We must look at it as it 
shows itself in human history. Hence the intelligent and 
conscientious student of the Christian religion must not fail 
to note carefully the difference between the Divine ideal of 
the church as described in the New Testament Scriptures, and 
the human real church as it is shown in the history of the 
ages since the day of Pentecost. 

And from this point of view it is easy to see that in indi- 
cating what the future will be, we must take into considera- 
tion the two factors to which reference has been made. Both 
God and man must be reckoned with, and when this is intel- 
ligently and honestly done, we shall undoubtedly realize a 
church modelled after the pattern given us in the New Testa- 
ment as regards faith, organization and life, but nevertheless 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 49 

considerably modified by the human element, which must al- 
ways assert itself as long as sin and weakness are incidental 
to our present environment. 

And now, with these clearly defined and important pre- 
liminary conclusions before us, I think we are prepared to 
look somewhat in detail as to what the church of the future 
will be in its faith, organization and life. 

I. WHAT WILL ITS FAITH BE ? 

Undoubtedly it will believe something. It was always 
true, is true now, and will be true in the future, that ' 'with- 
out faith it is impossible to please God." I know it is just 
now a growing fashion to treat faith indifferently — as if it 
were possible to know anything until we first believe! The 
fact is, faith is absolutely primary and fundamental in all our 
actions. The Apostle Paul said what is perfectly true to 
human experience when he declared that ' 'we w T alk by faith 
and not by sight." The great Anselm said: " I believe in 
order that I may know; I do not know in order that I may 
believe. ' ' And this is precisely in harmony with the exper- 
ience of all who look at the matter from either a Scriptural 
or philosophical point of view. 

But the church of the future will not only believe some- 
thing, but that something will have a definite reality. There 
is a great deal of w r hat is called faith which has nothing def- 
inite upon which to rest. It is belief in something, but that 
something is not unlike the woman's singing of the stanza in 
which both Canaan and Jordan are mentioned. She could 
not remember these names, and consequently she sang it after 
the following fashion: 

"So to the Jews old something stood, 
While something rolled between." 

It is perhaps true that in the past too much has been made 
of nice philosophical distinctions and recondite theological 
definitions, but this, in my judgment, does not justify a reac- 
tion to the extreme of latitudinarianism. I am not uncon- 
scious of the fact that one extreme begets another, but surely 
one extreme does not justify another. The old tendency to 
dogmatize as to matters of faith, to believe in opinions rather 



50 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

than facts, and to formulate speculations about the truth 
rather than to accept heartily the truth itself, has no doubt 
produced untold evils, and among these evils may be fairly 
reckoned the present tendency to be all things to all men, that 
by all means we may be nothing. There is really just as 
much need in these days for definiteness as regards matters of 
faith as at any time during the history of the church. 

But this definite something in the church of the future will 
have infallibility. We are so constituted that we cannot find 
perfect rest in anything short of that which is infallibly cer- 
tain. Archimedes said that if he had a fulcrum for his lever 
he could lift the world from its centre. This suggests the 
need of hermeneutics as well as philosophy. We cannot 
make progress without a definite starting point, and as re- 
gards religion this starting point must have infallibility. 
There is really nothing so certain as certainty. The French 
have a proverb which in our language says: " He who hesi- 
tates is lost. ' ' But we are sure to hesitate in religious mat- 
ters if we do not accept our Supreme Guide as absolutely in- 
fallible. The great French philosopher, M. Cousin, in his 
lectures on " The True, the Beautiful and the Good," says: 
"To-day, as in all time, two great wants are felt by man. 
The first, the most imperious, is that of fixed, immutable 
principles, which depend upon neither times nor places nor 
circumstances, and on which the mind reposes with an un- 
bounded confidence. In all investigations, as long as we 
have seized only isolated, disconnected facts, as long as we 
have not referred them to a general law, we possess the ma- 
terials of science, but there is yet no science. Even physics 
commence only when universal truths appear, to which all 
the facts of the same order that observation discovers to us in 
nature may be referred. Plato has said: " There is no sci- 
ence of the transitory. ' ' This is our first need. But there 
is another, not less legitimate, the need of not being the dupe 
of chimerical principles, of barren abstractions, of combina- 
tions more or less ingenious, but artificial; the need of rest- 
ing upon reality and life, the need of experience. The phys- 
ical and natural sciences, whose regular and rapid conquests 
strike and dazzle the most ignorant, owe their progress to the 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 51 

experimental method, which is carried to such an extent that 
one would not now condescend to lend the least attention to 
a science over which this method should not seek to preside. 

The first part of this statement distinctly emphasizes the 
point I have just made with respect to the need of infallibil- 
ity, while the second leads me to expand my statement with 
regard to what the church of the future will believe. The 
definite something which will be the object of faith will not 
only have infallibility, but will also have personality. Who- 
ever has carefully looked into the history of the rise and prog- 
ress of theology can scarcely have failed to notice that the 
whole of what is called theological science is based upon de- 
ductions from concepts of relations which have been improp- 
erly translated into things. It is truthfully said in Lewes' ' 'His- 
tory of Philosophy" that "one of the infirmities of thought 
is to transmute the former into material elements, to raise 
relations out of their proper category and transport them into 
the category of things. This is the parent of metaphysics. 
It is often called the tendency to realize abstractions. Hav- 
ing combined certain elements of practical experiences into a 
single conception, we treat the concept as if it were an indi- 
vidual object." Nothing could be more destructive of prac- 
tical religion than this tendency to realize abstractions in the 
matters with which religion has to do. But we do not stop 
even here in our metaphysical gymnastics. If the tendency 
to which I have called attention were allowed to have free 
course, as a mere exercise of the mind, the evil would not be 
so great, for undoubtedly metaphysical studies have a ten- 
dency to help the mind in making accurate distinctions, but 
these metaphysical conceptions or abstractions as soon as 
they are changed into things become in our estimation tests 
of fellowship, and consequently our reasonings instead of our 
actions are made to mark the bounds of Christian unity. We 
go deliberately to work to make out a given case; we apply 
the rules of logic until the Aristotelian system trembles under 
the heavy weight laid upon it, and then, when we have 
reached a conclusion, w T e do not hesitate to elevate this con- 
clusion into all the force of a " Thus-saith-the Lord. ' ' This 
is precisely what is objectionable. Logic is not a thing to be 



52 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

feared so long as it is confined to its legitimate sphere, but 
when we undertake to substitute the deductions of human 
reason for the plain statements of the Word of God, then it 
is that knowledge usurps the authority of faith, and human 
creeds become the bond of religious union and communion; 
then it is that the Bible ceases to be a rule of faith and duty, 
and becomes a mere fighting-ground for theological pugil- 
ists. Several years ago Archbishop Whately called very 
earnest attention to the folly of making theological specula- 
tions fundamental, or even important, in our religious faith, 
and Mansel, in his " Limits of Religious Thought," has put 
the whole matter so clearly that I feel justified in quoting a 
few sentences from his masterly statement. He says: " The 
testimony of Scripture, like that of our natural faculties, is 
plain and intelligible when we are content to accept it as a 
fact intended for our practical guidance; it becomes incom- 
prehensible only when we attempt to explain it as a theory 
capable of speculative analysis. We are distinctly told that 
there is mutual relation between God and man as distinct 
agents; that God influences man by His grace, visits him 
with reward or punishment, regards him with love or anger; 
that man within his own limited sphere is likewise capable of 
' prevailing with God,' that his prayer may obtain an answer 
from Him, his conduct call down God's favor or condemna- 
tion. There is nothing self-contradictory or even unintelli- 
gible in this if we are content to believe that it is so, without 
striving to understand how it is so; but the instant we attempt 
to analyze the ideas of God as infinite and man's as finite — 
to resolve the Scriptural statements into the higher principles 
on which their possibility apparently depends — we are sur- 
rounded on every side by contradictions of our own raising, 
and, unable to comprehend how the Infinite and finite can 
exist in mutual relation, we are tempted to deny the fact of 
that relation altogether, and to seek refuge, though it be but 
insecure and momentary, in pantheism, which denies the ex- 
istence of the finite; or atheism, which rejects the Infinite." 

This very clear and forcible statement enables us to see 
how surely we run upon breakers if we attempt to steer our 
religious life by a purely theological chart. It is well there- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 53 

fore that we are beginning to understand this matter, and, as 
a consequence, are beginning to seek for practical channels 
through which to display our energies, instead of in theolog- 
ical hair-splitting, which serves only to confuse thought rather 
than clarify it, to hinder Christian unity rather than foster it. 

Certainly no one ought to conclude from the present ten- 
dency that right thinking is of no consequence. I do not for 
a moment anticipate that the tendency to the practical will 
entirely do away with even formulated thinking. As long as 
men ask the reason why things are so there will undoubt- 
edly be attempts to answer, and no one should object to all 
legitimate efforts to solve every question which can possibly 
be suggested as regards both the life that now is and that 
which is to come, provided always that the inquiry is con- 
ducted in a legitimate manner. And when once we have 
abandoned the dogmatic method of investigation as regards 
the faith of the Gospel, it will not be difficult for us to reach 
the conclusion that faith is simply personal and not doctrinal 
at all. It is belief in a great Person, as our Prophet, Priest 
and King, and not in some metaphysical abstractions con- 
cerning either Him or anything He has spoken. This at 
once lifts faith out of the region of abstraction and places it 
where it property belongs. 

The last point to be considered with respect to the faith is 
that Christ, as the object of faith, inspires perfect confidence, 
not only because of His infallibility as a teacher, but also 
because of His perfect character in every other respect. 
We need only to understand Him in order to be able to 
trust Him implicitly, and this implicit trust brings with it 
perfect peace. I do not say that we will always completely 
trust Him, even though, like Pilate, we are compelled to ac- 
knowledge that w r e find no fault in Him. I have already in- 
timated that there are two factors in Christianity, namely, 
the Divine and the human. One is perfect, the other imper- 
fect. And while this remains true I do not see how it is 
possible to expect any condition of things wherein there will 
be no place for doubt or uncertainty. The human will al- 
ways be more or less uncertain in its grasp of the Divine, 
although it may be perfectly certain that the latter has every 



54 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

characteristic on which the soul can repose with entire confi- 
dence. However, it will surely help us to rest securely in 
the object of our faith, when that object is something definite, 
and when this something definite has infallibility, and when 
this infallibility has personality, and when this personality 
is entirely worthy of our most implicit trust. 

And this brings me to say a word or two about the dif- 
ference between Christ Himself and that system of religion 
which wears His name. Christ is greater than Christianity. 
This fact contains the hope of the world. Christianity, as a 
historical evolution, has doubtless been useful in many re- 
spects, but it has also been destructive of some of the best 
interests of mankind. It should be remembered that the 
word " Christianity" is not in the Bible, and is, therefore, of 
human origin. Nevertheless, when it represents the teach- 
ing and practice of Christ and His Apostles, it has its proper 
place in the nomenclature of religious literature. But, un- 
fortunately, in its modern use it very frequently stands for 
systems of doctrines presented in human creeds, while in its 
practical aspects it stands for the divided state of what is 
called Christendom, as well as the dogmatic strife which has 
more frequently in the history of the church represented the 
spirit of anti- Christ than the spirit of Christ Himself. Indeed, 
it may be truly said that every century since the days of the 
Apostles has had its confederacy of evil in the garb of Chris- 
tianity. I have already intimated the danger of theological 
speculation in religious matters, and therefore I need not 
take up your time with details as to how this danger has been 
illustrated in the history of the past centuries. It is quite 
sufficient to say that there can be little hope for any church 
of the future which does not make the personal Christ the 
beginning and end of a whole-hearted faith. 

II. WHAT WILL BE THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FUTURE 
CHURCH ? 

Before looking at the question of organization specifically, 
it may be well to say a few words about it generally. Un- 
doubtedly the historic church has been heavily burdened by 
an alliance with the governments of this world. But this is 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 55 

not the worst of it. The union of church and state necessa- 
rily implies limitations which are not in harmony with the 
character of the church as described in the New Testament. 
The Divine ideal of the church may always and everywhere 
be known by at least three distinguishing characteristics. 
First, universality; second, spirituality; and third by unity. 
And if the church of the future is to manifest the essential 
features of the Divine ideal, or New Testament church, then 
clearly the coming church cannot be bounded by state lines, 
or associated with statecraft, or divided into as many parts 
as there are different governments in the world. Whatever 
else the church of the future may lack, it must have compre- 
hension; it must have a spiritual membership; and it must 
have distinct oneness in all that is necessary to constitute 
Christian unity. The very message which it has to deliver 
to the world is universal in its character, and conseauently 
the church itself cannot be restricted by the boundary lines 
of earthly kingdoms or temporalities of any kind whatever. 
In a word, it must be ecumenical. The Gospel is to be car- 
ried into all the world and preached to every creature, and 
the church ought to be co-extensive with the Gospel mes- 
sage. It is also true that membership in the church of the 
future must depend upon spiritual birth, and not upon natu- 
ral birth. In other words, nationality must not be allowed 
to take the place of spirituality. Because a man is a citizen 
of a certain government or belongs to a particular nationality, 
he must not on that account be regarded as necessarily be- 
longing to the church of Jesus Christ. Nothing short of the 
new birth, or new creation in Christ Jesus, will entitle any- 
one to real membership in the organization I am considering. 
And let it be furthermore distinctly understood that the pres- 
ent divided state of Christendom utterly fails to represent the 
oneness of Christ's disciples for which He so fervently prayed. 
Hence the church of the future must have catholicity, spirit- 
uality and unity. And to have these it must not consider 
seriously the question of what is called the ' ' historic episco- 
pate," or any other peculiar feature of church government 
which radically affects the three general characteristics to 
which I have called attention. 



56 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Nor is there any need for cleavage along the lines which 
have usually distinguished. Episcopalians, Presbyterians and 
Congregationalists from each other. The church of the fu- 
ture will undoubtedly be Episcopalian, because it will be 
governed by bishops or overseers; it will be Presbyterian be- 
cause it will be governed by presbyters or elders, these being 
from a New Testament point of view the same as bishops or 
overseers; and it will also be Congregational, because the 
whole assembly will be the final source of appeal with respect 
to all matters of governmental authority. Hence the church 
will be Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Congregational, but 
not any one of these to the exclusion of the others. 

It is desirable I think that special emphasis should be 
placed upon the last general characteristic which I have 
mentioned, namely, the oneness of the members of the church 
of the future. This oneness is very comprehensively and 
clearly stated by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Gala- 
tians, where he says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, 
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor fe- 
male: for we are all one in Christ Jesus." 

In this Scripture there are three very important distinc- 
tions clearly indicated, which I think the church of the future 
must practically annihilate before it is possible for that church 
to realize, even in an approximate sense, the splendid ideal 
of the New Testament. Let us therefore look honestly at 
the three distinctions to which the Apostle calls attention. 

(i). The distinction between Jew and Greek cannot be 
recognized in the future church. This has been one of the 
fundamental difficulties in the way of the progress of the Gos- 
pel ever since it was first preached, and it has perhaps done 
more than any other one thing to destroy the ecumenical 
character of the church. Indeed, it cannot be doubted that 
even now the old controversy between Jew and Greek, be- 
tween the old covenant and the new, between the law and 
the Gospel, between Moses and Christ, is more or less a fac- 
tor in the church of the present day. It is not too much to 
say, I verily believe, that we are still troubled with Judaiz- 
ing teachers, who are urging all God's free children to go 
back again to the yoke of bondage. But those who are so 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 57 

zealous for the law practically destroy the Gospel. We must 
not bind freedom in order to liberate the slave. In our anx- 
iety to honor the law of Moses we may dishonor the law of 
Christ. Too much emphasis placed upon the first may make 
the last an insignificant appendix, and this is precisely what 
many have practically done during the past ages of the 
church, and I fear that there are not a few who are even now 
more careful about maintaining the integrity of the law than 
the integrity of the Gospel. Undoubtedly the law is better 
than nothing at all. And it may be that some people will 
have to tie themselves to it, like Ulysses tied himself to the 
masts of the ship in order to pass securely the Island of the 
Sirens; but if we really know how to make the music of the 
new covenant we may, like Orpheus, drown the voice of the 
sirens in the sweet melody of the Gospel lute, and thus escape 
the seductive influence of temptation without the necessity of 
fastening ourselves to the imperious prohibitions of the law. 
And it is simply certain that the church of the future must 
take a new departure with respect to the matter now under 
consideration. And it will, I think, at any rate demonstrate 
the unity of the race by breaking down the distinction be- 
tween Jew and Greek. The promise of God to Abraham was 
in its ultimate design emphatically ecumenical — it included 
all the families of the earth. And the law which was given 
430 years afterwards was simply a parenthesis, or a mere 
temporary addition, because of transgressions until the prom- 
ised seed should come. This law could not therefore annul 
the promise which was intended for all time and for every crea- 
ture. The former was not only temporal, but temporary. It 
related not only to time simply in its dealings with the Jew- 
ish people, but even the time of its authority was limited. 
It was also exclusive. The latter however is inclusive, com- 
prehensive, spiritual and permanent. As the law has do- 
minion only while the man liveth, the moment we are cruci- 
fied with Christ, or die to sin, that moment are we released 
from the law. Our resurrection is to a new life, to a new 
Master, and to a new kingdom. In fact, all things become 
new to us the moment we are in Christ Jesus our Lord, and 
in Him the law hath no dominion over us. Or, to change 



58 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

the figure, the law is a shadow of the good things to come. 
Now a shadow presupposes light somewhere. The light of 
the Sun of Righteousness was actually shining all the time 
the law was in force, and as this Sun rose higher and higher 
the shadow grew shorter and shorter; so that when, on the 
day of Pentecost, the Sun had reached the zenith of His glory, 
was indeed declared to be both Lord and Christ, then the 
shadow was under His feet, or the law ceased to have any po- 
tentiality with either Christ or those who were His. Since 
that time ' ' Christ has been the end of the law for righteous- 
ness to every one that believeth." This fact must be made 
prominent in the church of the future, or else that church 
will not be much of an improvement on the church of the 
past or the present. 

And the influence of the Greek as such must also be 
broken. The late Professor Hatch, of Oxford University, 
with great research and ability, has shown with admirable 
clearness the influence of Greek philosophy on the develop- 
ment of historic Christianity. No doubt we are largely in- 
debted to the Greek spirit for the philosophizing tendency to 
which I have already called attention, and which has wrought 
such fearful havoc in the historic church, for it cannot be 
doubted that the tendency has been the parent of most of the 
theological hair-splitting which has often made the difference 
between saints and sinners to consist in little more than the 
change of a single letter in the spelling of a word. 

However, the annihilation of the difference between Jew 
and Greek will at once demonstrate the unity of the race, 
which is a most important step in the direction of that uni- 
versal brotherhood, the establishment of which is one of the 
great objects of Christianity in the world. 

(2) . The distinction between bond and free must also 
give way before the coming church. The breaking down of 
this distinction will bring us to social unity. There is per- 
haps nothing in which the church of the past has more sig- 
nally failed than in realizing the Christian ideal of social life. 
The late General Gordon was practically divorced from the 
churches of his day by what he regarded as their recognition 
of caste. He held very earnestly to the notion that both 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 59 

Christ and His Apostles very clearly taught that in Christ Je- 
sus the distinction between bond and free cannot legitimately 
be recognized. And I think we are all bound to acknowl- 
edge that even our modern Christianity does not properly 
illustrate the socialism of the New Testament. The old no- 
tion that one man is better than another because of the acci- 
dents of natural birth still dominates our church life, and I 
fear has a much deeper hold than many are willing to admit. 
But the church of the future will break down the reign of 
caste, and will recognize only the royal mark of dignity which 
belongs to every Christian man, because of his relation to the 
Man Christ Jesus. The fact is there is nothing which distin- 
guishes the Christian religion so much as its doctrine of social 
unity. When Christ said " There is joy in heaven with the 
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth," He struck the 
keynote of the music of the new age to which we are rapidly 
coming. The value ot the individual man, and the value of 
that man in his lowest estate, is perhaps the most marvelous 
revelation in the whole teaching of the great Teacher. We 
pray that the will of God may be done on earth as in heaven, 
but how few of us are ready to rejoice with the angels of God 
over one sinner that repenteth ! When, however, such a per- 
son returns to God, all heaven is filled with rapturous de- 
light. But we wait for the hundreds and thousands before 
our joy amounts to much. And even these must be the dis- 
tinguished of earth in order to excite our highest delight. 
But I thank God the church of the future will change all 
this, for it will completely revolutionize our social ideas, and 
will consequently break down all such barriers as have here- 
tofore blocked the way to genuine religious progress. Flesh 
will no longer dominate, though it may not be completely 
conquered while we are subject to the conditions of our pres- 
ent environment. Doubtless we shall always be to some ex- 
tent influenced by the- sensuous while we are in our present 
state, but when the spiritual man has fair play in the strug- 
gle for the mastery, we shall at least be delivered from the 
complete domination of the sensuous, which has so emphatic- 
ally marked the past history of the church. 

(3). It is perhaps even more remarkable that the 



60 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Apostle should say that there is neither male nor female in 
Christ Jesus. And yet there is a most important sense in 
which this is true, and if the church of the future is to main- 
tain the essential characteristics of the unity contended for by 
the Apostle, then it is certain that woman must have a more 
important place in the church than she has yet filled. I do 
not stop to discuss those recondite questions which so often 
have engaged the attention of theological pugilists — such as 
Paul's supposed prohibition against women speaking in 
church, etc. I am concerned at present with a more important 
aspect of the question. I am looking at a phase of family life 
which must be made prominent in the church. I have already 
shown that by getting rid of the anti-spiritual difference be- 
tween Jew and Greek we practically reach unity of the race, 
and by getting rid of the distinction between bond and 
free we reach the unity of society, or social unity; and now I 
wish to emphasize the fact that by getting rid of the distinc- 
tion between male and female, in so far as church relations 
are concerned, we shall reach family unity; and this will 
practically cover the whole ground of unity so far as it re- 
lates to organization. Indeed, I believe the church of the 
future will have organic unity simply because it will recog- 
nize organic difference. Unity implies difference. There is 
difference between Jew and Greek, there is also difference 
between bond and free, there is difference between male and 
female; but in Christ Jesus these differences do not count. 
The oneness that is in Him brings all differences into unity. 
He is the light of the world in which all colors are blended; 
He is the music of the world in which all different notes 
harmonize. And when the church shall cease listening to 
organ-grinders, and hear only Him of whom Moses and the 
Prophets did speak, then we shall begin to understand that 
difference in the right place is harmony, while difference in the 
wrong place is discord. But, as already intimated, we have 
been listening to organ-grinders whose sectarian clatter is not 
much more grateful to the cultivated ear than those of whom 
Dr. Holmes speaks: 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 61 

" You think they are crusaders sent 

From some infernal clime, 
To pluck the eyes of sentiment, 

And dock the tail of rhyme, 
To crack the voice of melody, 

And break the legs of time. ' ' 

And it cannot be disputed that the discords of hurdy- 
gurdy sectarianism have been heard all along the line traced 
by the Apostle in the words which we have been considering, 
and especially with respect to what he says about male and 
female. 

I cannot now go into particulars in order to show how 
woman's work may be made more effective in the salvation 
of the world. It is sufficient for my present purpose to put 
all the emphasis I can command into the inspired statement 
which I have quoted from the Apostle to the Gentiles. And, 
in my judgment, when we have practically reached the three 
unities to which I have called attention, there will not be 
much difficulty in realizing ' ' the unity of the spirit ' ' which 
the Divine Word so urgently exhorts us to keep. This, of 
course, is the main end in view, but the three unities which 
the Apostle's teaching clearly implies must necessarily pre- 
cede such a unity of the spirit as will give us a church com- 
mensurate with the needs of the whole human race. 

Undoubtedly our conflict is chiefly with the three antag- 
onisms which the Apostle has presented, and consequently to 
overcome at these points will be to subdue the flesh, conquer 
the animal, and bring liberty to the spiritual man. At pres- 
ent our struggle is with the sensuous, the carnal, the animal, 
involving all the lower elements of our being and environment, 
and we can have spiritual unity only when our higher na- 
ture has gained the ascendancy over the lower, and when our 
true manhood and womanhood are allowed to become domin- 
ant in all our lifework. 

And just here we touch the conflict of ages; and just here 
we must triumph, if the church of the future shall be essen- 
tially what the ideal is in the New Testament Scriptures. It 
was the animal that triumphed through the temptation in 
Eden, and it is the animal or sensuous which has been in 



62 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

conflict with the spiritual ever since the fall of man. This 
conflict is well illustrated in Flaubert's incomparable story of 
Salambo, in which he gives us a legend full of tragic inter- 
est, wherein the facts of history are deftly woven in the 
threads of romance. 

The story is concerning the sensuous passion of Matho, 
the I^ybian chief, for Salambo, the daughter of Hamilcar, 
the great Carthaginian Suffete and father of Hannibal. Dur- 
ing the siege of Carthage by the mercenaries, Matho, aided 
by Spendius, penetrates into the city at night, enters the 
Temple of Tanit, and carries off the mysterious veil of the 
goddess, whom the Carthaginians held in great veneration. 
Clothed in this mantle, which to even look upon was profan- 
ation for the worshipers, he succeeded in making an entrance 
into the private apartments of Salambo, to whom he declared 
his passion and then retired, a mob following him, though 
unable to do him harm because of the sacred Zaimph with 
which he was covered. He succeeded in carrying the veil or 
mantle into the camp of the barbarians and kept it unstained. 
The subsequent misfortunes of Carthage were chiefly ascribed 
to the loss of the Zaimph, and in the dire necessity of the 
case Salambo was deputed by a priest of Tanit to go to the 
tent of Matho and rescue the veil at whatever risk of life or 
virtue. This mission Salambo undertakes, and succeeds in 
securing the Zaimph, though she places her virtue under sus- 
picion, and from henceforth she finds herself strangely inter- 
ested in Matho, notwithstanding she declares her hatred of 
him. Immediately after the restoration of the Zaimph, 
Hamilcar promised his daughter in marriage to 'Naar Havas, 
a Numidian chief. At a pitched battle between the barbar- 
ians, commanded by Matho, and the Carthaginians, com- 
manded by Hamilcar, the former were practically annihilated, 
and Matho was taken prisoner. 

The war was thus ended, and then the wedding of Salam- 
bo and 'Naar Havas was fixed. On this same day Matho 
was to be executed, his death to be made as horrible and 
painful as possible on account of his rape of the Zaimph. 
Salambo is dressed in magnificent splendor for the occasion, 
and just before the time for taking the marriage vow Matho 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 63 

is driven before her eyes by his tormentors, and finally falls 
and expires, while his eyes are fixed in a wild gaze on Sal- 
ambo. Meantime she has been steadfastly watching him, 
and when he expires "she fell, her head leaning over the 
back of the throne, pallid, stiff, her lips parted, and her dis- 
hevelled hair hung to the ground. ' ' The story ends with the 
following sentence: "Thus died the daughter of Hamilcar 
for having touched the veil of Tanit. ' ' 

Now it is not difficult to extract the moral of Flaubert's 
great novel. Evidently it is intended to illustrate the strange 
fascination of the forbidden, and the danger of doing evil that 
good may come. It further emphasizes the importance of 
authority in governing human passion. And just here we 
touch the secret springs of all history. The conflict in Eden 
was not unlike the story of Salambo. There was the con- 
flict of authority ; the struggle between passion and reason; 
the battle of the desires with the law of prohibition. In the 
case of Salambo it is the same old story in different language 
and with different characters. And it can scarcely be re- 
garded as accidental that a serpent plays an important part 
in the latter as it does in the former. The python of Salambo 
does not speak, but its mystic power is felt all the same. In 
both cases the animal predominates. In Salambo the spirit- 
ual yields to the carnal, virtue to lust, and authority to the de- 
sire to taste the forbidden. Practically it is the reproduction of 
the Eden tragedy, and this has been reproduced more or less in 
reality all along down the history of the ages. And we are still 
ready to touch the veil of Tanit, though it is written even by 
Divine authority that whosoever toucheth shall surely die. 
We do not believe what is written; or if we do half believe we 
are more than persuaded that the end justifies the means. So 
we go to the tent of Matho, sacrifice our virtue, trifle with the 
law of prohibition, place ourselves under the control of the 
animal, and bring upon ourselves condemnation, all for the 
sake of gratifying the demands of the sensuous. 

We cannot believe that some things are too sacred to be 
handled. Hence we listen to the voice of the animal rather 
than to the Word of God. The python is directing our steps, 
and we follow his leading rather than the great spiritual 



64 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Master, who has taught us that self-denial is the first step in 
order to become His disciples. In fact, Matho, the brave, 
sensuous L,ybian chief, is our beau ideal of a man, and, fol- 
lowing his example, we do not hesitate to invade the most 
sacred temples if we can only bear away in triumph that 
which will give us access to our desires. Matho' s ambition 
was to win Salambo, and this he endeavored to do at the 
sacrifice of Carthage and virtue and the sacredness of Tanit. 
The world is still moving on the same lines, namely, the 
sensuous. The temporal is still uppermost. The cry of the 
spiritual is like the wail of Carthage over the lost Zaimph, 
and yet it cries in vain. Our sacred veils are still in the tent 
of Matho, and even if some noble, spiritual Salambo should 
risk all to capture them, she must pay the penalty for coming 
in contact with the power of the animal. 

But even our temples are full of the sensuous. We do not 
need to go to the tent of Matho to find our animal masters. 
Religion furnishes us with all we are seeking for. The spir- 
itual worship and self-sacrifice and service of the Apostolic 
church have been superseded by a mixed materialism and 
self-indulgence which have removed our church life very far 
from the New Testament ideal. The preaching of the pres- 
ent time, in order to be popular, must make the nerves tingle; 
worship must thrill the senses; the music must ravish the 
ear; and the prayers must have the fragrance of incense for 
the nostrils. Matho, the bold, successful, sensuous chief, 
stole the veil of Tanit, and our religion has been carried into 
the tent of the barbarian. And now our danger comes, for 
any effort to deliver our religion from its present environment 
must necessarily bring us in contact with that which is de- 
filing. Contact with the sensuous is itself dangerous. ' ' De- 
liver us from evil," is a prayer we need constantly to utter. 
First of all, the church was in the world, but was not of the 
world. Now the case is changed. To-day our churches are 
too much given up to the sensuous. To please the world, to 
gain its applause, to secure its attention appears to be the 
chief concern. But for this unholy alliance we shall have to 
suffer, just as certainly as effect follows cause. We cannot 
play with evil without feeling its influence upon us. Hence 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 65 

we must have respect for the authority of Him who has 
spoken unto us; we must not touch that which is forbidden, 
even though it seems to be as sacred as the Zaimph of Tanit. 
Touching may give us a temporary advantage, but the time 
will surely come when we must pay the penalty for our dis- 
obedience. Nor shall we be exempt from the penalty even 
though our purpose be as noble as that of Salambo in recap- 
turing the Zaimph. She touched it, and thereby turned her 
devotion into sacrilege, and finally paid the penalty with her 
death. We cannot trifle with sacred things without danger 
to all our best interests. Forbidden fruit in Eden was the 
symbol of all subsequent tests of respect for authority. It 
taught the world that faith and not sense is that by which 
we must overcome. The battle in Eden was lost because 
sense was allowed to usurp the place of faith. And so it will 
be to the' end. The Zaimph of Tanit may have been a de- 
lusion, as no doubt it was, but it was better to believe in it 
and accept the security which this faith gave, than to break 
the delusion with the hand of a Matho, and thus surrender 
the soul to the control of the senses. And yet the struggle 
of the ages is the struggle of the spiritual and the animal — 
the effort to re- instate the soul in the place from which it has 
fallen. To accomplish this was the mission of Christ to the 
world, and this will be accomplished when the church of the 
future shall give to us the ideal beauty of the living Christ. 

in. 

Having now considered with sufficient fullness what will 
be the faith and organic character of the church of the fu- 
ture, it is only necessary in order to complete our survey to 
notice briefly what this church will be in its life; or what it 
will be as a practical organization for good. This, after all, 
is the true test of everything that has life, and this is really 
the side of what we call Christianity that Christ Himself 
most distinctly emphasized. He certainly did not give much 
attention to what we call doctrinal statements. Indeed it 
may be fairly questioned whether He gave any attention 
whatever to the kind of doctrinal statement which has largely 
engaged the attention of the church in the past. It is at any 



66 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

rate a very remarkable fact that all the creeds of Christendom 
are chiefly concerned with dogmas which have little or no 
place in the teaching of the Christ, while the matters which 
He emphasized most are either not noticed at all, or else 
they are placed in a very subordinate position. It would 
truly be a very curious creed that would emphasize the teach- 
ing, item by item, of the Sermon on the Mount; and yet it 
seems to me that that teaching is quite as important as any- 
thing else in the New Testament, if indeed it is not more im- 
portant. But, however this may be, it is safe to say that 
whatever may have been necessary to the church of the past, 
or whatever it may have been able to do without, it is abso- 
lutely certain that the church of the future can never meet 
the high hopes of the present nor the responsibilities of the 
work which that church will be called upon to discharge, 
unless it practices what it preaches. Hence both its faith 
and organization will be useless, and even worse than useless, 
if the life of the church is not what it ought to be. 

We often distinguish between things that do not essen- 
tially differ, but this is necessary in order to accommodate our 
language to the weakness of our environment. We talk 
about sacred and secular, prayer and work, praise and sacri- 
fice, etc., but in the highest analysis these all meet together 
in unity. In the sphere of true living all things become 
sacred, while work and sacrifice are turned into prayer and 
praise. Divine living is what God wants of the Christian, 
though He does not expect this without the necessary pre- 
liminary training, which ought to be supplied in the church. 
And it is precisely this training which will give the church 
of the future its superiority over the church of the present 
day. 

What, then, will be the character of the coming church 
with respect to the great work which it has to accomplish ? 
It will be (i) aggressive; (2) progressive; (3) congressive. 

L,et us very briefly examine each one of these in the order 
I have named them, and then we shall, I think, the better 
understand the real spirit of the church which we are all 
hoping may soon come in its fullest manifestations of power. 

(1) . The church of the future will be intensely aggress- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 67 

ive. It will not be satisfied to merely build, places of wor- 
ship and then invite the people into them, or else by pander- 
ing to worldly taste entice the people into them; but the 
church I am considering will recognize in all its potentiality 
the meaning of the first word in the great commission which 
Christ gave to His Apostles. The word " Go" will have a 
significance which at present does not attach to it, and this 
word will take the future church into all the world, so that 
the Gospel may really be preached to every creature. The 
one need of the present day is the heroic spirit which compels 
to the noblest deeds. Really, the age of heroes has passed. 
In our church life there are no grand men, such as Luther, 
Calvin, Wesley and Campbell to lead us. We have many 
men of excellent characters, and some of them are filling im- 
portant spheres, but when we ask: Where are the men who 
fitly represent the heroic age of action? echo answers, Where? 
Truly may it be said that ' ' Atlas has gone to the Hesper- 
ides, and there is no one left to hold up the skies; that 
Ulysses has departed on his wanderings, and there is none 
strong enough at Ithaca to bend his matchless bow." But 
the church of the future will aim to make every man a hero 
by infusing into him the aggressive spirit. However, all are 
not likely to be heroic; some will have to be carried, but the 
aggressive spirit will not wait on these, though it will recog- 
nize the duty of carrying all who have not strength in them- 
selves. Many of these are no doubt very troublesome, even 
when the noblest charity is exercised towards them; and if 
we were engaged in a carnal strife we could well afford to 
leave them behind, for they undoubtedly hinder to a large 
extent all earnest aggressive effort. All the same, it is im- 
possible to reckon with the conditions of the future without 
taking them into the account, and while this may be a 
hindrance to progress, it is altogether probable that even the 
church army of the future cannot do without its ambulance 
corps. There will always be enough weak souls who must 
be carried to give full employment to the surplus energies of 
the strong. Grumblers and fault-finders, like the poor, are 
with us always, and it is almost certain that they w T ill not 
leave us in the coming church. Some men were no doubt 



68 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

born in the objective case. They are never pleased with 
anything except themselves, and they would not be pleased 
even with themselves if they were large enough to be seen 
on the other side of the personal pronoun I. 

But the habit of fault-finding is no new thing under the 
sun. The Israelites were much given to grumbling. No 
people were ever more highly favored. God was with them 
in a very special manner. He was a pillar of cloud to them 
by day and a pillar of fire by night. He fed them with 
manna and quails, and gave them water from Horeb to 
drink. Yet the people murmured. The more blessings they 
received the more they seemed to be dissatisfied. No won- 
der Moses grew impatient. He knew how little cause there 
was for complaint. But he did not take into account suffi- 
ciently their immaturity. They were simply big babies. 
They had physical growth, but their religious and mental 
development was sadly behind; they had to be carried. 
They cried for the mortar-beds of Egypt. They often sighed 
to go back to their bondage. This feeling showed itself 
right at the start. At the Red Sea their demands to go back 
were imperative. Moses said to them, "Stand still and see 
the salvation of the I^ord." But God said, "Wherefore 
criest thou unto me ? speak unto the children of Israel that 
they go forward." Here were four doctrines preached: first, 
the go-back doctrine; second, the cry-on doctrine; third, the 
stand-still doctrine; and fourth, the go-forward doctrine. 
The last was God's doctrine, and was consequently the true 
doctrine. The other three doctrines were false, and as used 
in these days are always misleading. The third was at once 
contradicted by Divine authority, and therefore should not 
now be used as indicating the way out of any difficulty. 

The way to victory is toward the front. Forward ! 
should be the watchword of every man who hopes to accom- 
plish anything in this life. But the go-back, crying, and 
standing-still doctrines are not yet conquered. Indeed, in 
many places they are in a large majority; at least the men 
who do not wish to go forward are in a large majority. 
Progress is not always peace. To float down stream is an 
easy matter, but to pull against the tide is quite another 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 69 

thing. Anyone can object — any one can find fault. The 
world's heroes have always had to pull the grumblers after 
them. But even this is a noble work to do. We must not 
be satisfied with getting forward ourselves; we must aim to 
get others forward also. Unselfishness is one of the most 
fundamental matters connected with the Christian religion. 
And yet unselfishness is, in its highest form, the very high- 
est self-interest. As a matter of fact,, the only way to get on 
is to help others. Some men make a great noise and go 
through all the motions of work, but a closer examination 
will reveal the fact that they are practically doing nothing. 
What we need is real work, not pretense. Mere motion and 
noise are poor substitutes for genuine power and a wise ap- 
plication of it. 

I was once crossing the Atlantic from New York to Liv- 
erpool, and after leaving New York I soon noticed that the 
ship was not making her usual time. I counted the revolu- 
tions of the screw and found that these were at least ten 
behind what they should be. A look into the engine-room 
revealed nothing that indicated weakness. But I was not 
satisfied; I asked an officer what was the matter. He re- 
plied by pointing to one of the three pistons. Said he, 
' ' That piston nearest to you is a dummy. It is moving up 
and down just like the other two, but it is not only useless, 
but worse than useless, for it is indebted to the two live pis- 
tons for even the life it shows. They not only drive the ship, 
but have to pull the dummy piston along while doing it. ' ' 
And so I think it is with some men. They not only do 
nothing themselves, but the live, active, progressive work- 
ers who are driving the ship of progress have literally to 
draw the dummy men after them, or else the dummies would 
never get on at all. L,et us make no mistake in this matter. 
It often happens that the very little activity shown by fault- 
finders is due wholly to the great activity of the real work- 
ers. The real workers are not only carrying the whole load 
of the work, but they are carrying also the men who will not 
work, and who really try to hinder the hard workers by 
fault-finding. 

But this double service is quite necessary. We cannot, 



7o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

even if we would, disassociate ourselves from the dummies, 
the fault-finders, the objectors. They belong to the machin- 
ery, and must therefore be reckoned with in all our efforts at 
progress. But we must not stop the ship because we have to 
carry a dummy piston. We can at least put motion into the 
men who are preaching the go-back, cry-on or stand-still 
doctrine. I am not unmindful that these men may claim that 
the very motion we impart to them is a sign that they are 
actually driving the ship. Let us not mind that. The de- 
fects in their machinery may be remedied after a while, and 
then these dummies may do good service in the great work 
of progress. Christ's method was to make friends out of en- 
emies. He did not come to destroy, but to save. This should 
be our policy. We may have to carry some men for a time, 
but these dummies may some day become brave and earnest 
helpers in our conflict with evil. Hence one of the lessons 
which every active Christian should learn is how to wait on 
the development of those who are now in the great army of 
fault-finders and complainers, who are really the dummy pis- 
tons on every ship of progress. How many men, brother, 
can you carry until you can bring them into good working 
condition? Be patient, for just here you have a very grave 
responsibility, and just here is where I verily believe the 
Christians of the future will be wiser than we have been. 
They will not stop back with the ambulances, but they will 
nevertheless keep the ambulances in the rear for the benefit 
of those who are weak, ill, or wounded. 

(2). The church of the future will be essentially pro- 
gressive in the best meaning of that word. I do not see how 
this could be otherwise in a church which aims at develop- 
ment. Legitimate growth is only another name for normal 
progress. Any church which grows in grace and in the 
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ must make progress. I 
am not unmindful of the fact that with some of the grumblers, 
to whom reference has been made, progress has become an 
epithet, and efficiency a crime, but to those who look at the 
whole matter from a truly Christian point of view it will ap- 
pear perfectly evident that no church can do the work of God 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 71 

in this world which does not make progress a watchword and 
efficiency the highest proof of fitness for service. 

But in pleading earnestly for progress, I do not wish to 
be understood as having any faith at all in noisy professions 
of progress. It is not necessary to talk loud and make large 
demonstrations of purpose. The Divine method of working 
should alway s be our example. God is economical of power. 
He does not waste energy. Kven when He exerts His 
mighty strength the most He nearty always does this in si- 
lent courses. Nor is the silence broken until the power is 
exhausted. He never thunders without the corresponding 
lightning. We often thunder most when the lightning is 
least. Noise does not therefore necessarily imply strength; 
indeed it is rather a sign of weakness. Progress is not 
simply resistance; it may not imply any visible conflict at all. 
I know we are always talking about fighting error, and no 
doubt there are times when this cannot be avoided. We have 
already seen that the church must be aggressive, and that 
this aggressiveness means the overthrow of all opposition. 
Hence there are times when the conflict between truth and 
error will not admit of even a temporary compromise, and at 
such times to fight earnestly for the truth is the highest vir- 
tue; but, after all, truth is never so beautiful as when she 
humbles herself in order to be charitable to the wrong-doer. 
It is precisely at such a moment that she best reflects the 
image of Him who said to the erring one: " Neither do I 
condemn thee: go and sin no more." 

The world has not yet learned to appreciate the high 
qualities of attractive force. Most of us are centrifugalists, 
rather than centripetalists (if you will allow me to coin these 
words to express my meaning) . We are never so sure of 
progress as when we are driving everything into space. In 
a word, we believe in progress by repulsion, rather than by 
attraction. But the church of the future will reach its high- 
est development in the harmonious action of all forces that 
enter into the law of progress. 

(3) . The coming church will not only be aggressive and 
progressive, but it will also be eminently congress! ve. This 
means that Christians shall not only walk together, but that 



72 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

they shall meet together, worship together, and work to- 
gether. In the past there has been entirely too much isola- 
tion, too little conference, and by far too little co-operation. 
Denomination alism is bad enough, but sectarianism is even 
worse. The former may exist without the latter, but neither 
can exist without injury to the cause of Christ. The one 
hinders brotherliness and Christian work, but the other liter- 
ally drives out the Christian spirit, and in its stead fosters a 
spirit which is intensely selfish, if not devilish. The church 
of the future must get rid of the latter, if indeed it does not 
of the former. When that church has reached its highest de- 
velopment (and this will be its congressive period), then 
such a religious congress as the one in which we are now 
taking part will be regarded as a normal sign of our religious 
development. 

And now, in conclusion, it may be well to inquire what 
are some of the blessings which such a church as I have de- 
scribed will bring with it ? I have already mentioned that 
the church of the past has been largely disappointing in prac- 
tical results. The Apostolic church had many of the charac- 
teristics which I have intimated must belong to the church 
of the future, but even the church of Apostolic times did not 
fairly represent the Divine ideal presented in the New Testa- 
ment. The apostasy which had already begun to work in 
Paul's day continued to develop through the patristic church 
until it became an accomplished fact by the union of church 
and state under Constantine. From that period down to the 
present, apostasy has more or less shown itself in every age 
of the church, and yet, notwithstanding all drawbacks, much 
good has been accomplished, and some definite progress has 
been made. During the last hundred years a great deal has 
been accomplished in the right direction. But there is still 
very much to be done before the church shall become as ' 'fair 
as the moon, as clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners." 

Let us now answer the inquiry as to what the church of 
the future will bring with it. 

(i) . It will bring a new era of brotherhood. Professor 
Drummond has been telling us about ' ' The City without a 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 73 

Church. ' ' And what he has said has attracted widespread at- 
tention. But in my judgment there is a fallacy in the Pro- 
fessor's reasoning which some have failed to discover. If he 
had described a city that is all church, he would have come 
much nearer the truth than he has done. He seems to have 
a wrong conception of what the church is as it is represented 
in the Word of God. He evidently confounds the place of 
worship with the church itself, or that which really worships. 
The ecdesia of the New Testament is altogether a different 
thing from the kuriakee or kuriakon, which seems to be the 
thing which Professor Drummond does not find in the New 
Jerusalem city. This confusion of the ecdesia with the 
" house of the Lord," or the place in which the assembly 
gathers, is not peculiar to Professor Drummond; it is a com- 
mon habit with many who write about the church. But if 
we fix our minds upon the assembly itself, or, better still, on 
all the Christians at a given place or city, we immediately see 
how absurd it is to suppose that there can be a consecrated 
Christian city without a church. Really the thing to be aimed 
at is to make the whole city practically a church. In Apostolic 
days the style was " The church at " a place or city, such 
as ' ' The church at Jerusalem, " " The church at Kphesus, ' ' 
' ' The church at Thessalonica, ' ' etc. , etc. We never read in 
the New Testament of churches (plural) at a city. Evidently 
it was the Divine intention to bring every city into subjec- 
tion to the Gospel, and thus make each city co-extensive with 
the church at that place. 

Without therefore calling in question Professor Drum- 
mond' s contention that the New Jerusalem city seen by John is 
what must ultimately be realized here, I cannot for a moment 
agree with him that any such notion is contemplated as the 
city without a church. He thinks that the apocalyptic New 
Jerusalem may find its fulfillment in any cit} r of modern 
times, and that London, Berlin, Paris, New York, Chicago, 
etc., may become New Jerusalems. But Professor Drum- 
mond' s contention does not go on all fours. While it is said 
that the city which John saw had no temple therein, it is at 
the same time stated that it ' ' had no need of the sun, neither 
the moon to shine in it, for the glory of the L,ord did lighten 



74 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. ' ' Does the Professor 
imagine that our modern cities will ever be able to do with- 
out the light of the sun and the moon ? And if we are to in- 
terpret these terms metaphorically, then does he suppose that 
any of these cities can do without the light that God shines 
through His church ? 

However, the moment that we realize the city that is all 
church, or the city where all its inhabitants belong to the 
spiritual brotherhood which is represented by the ideal church, 
that moment we have reached a new and blessed era of broth- 
erhood. This is what the world is sighing for, and this is 
exactly the socialism which the world needs. When the 
church in the life of its members fitly illustrates universality, 
spirituality and unity, then we shall have the socialism of 
Christ, and this will at once bring the new era of brotherhood 
to which I have called attention. 

(2) . The church of the future will bring a new era of 
consecration and sendee. Who does not feel the need of such 
an era? Everywhere there is a painful sense of failure as re- 
gards devotedness to the cause of Christ. I greatly fear that 
very many professing Christians of the present day might 
safely be classed with the Laodiceans in the apocalyptic vis- 
ion. At best they are only lukewarm, and lack both the 
spirit of consecration and earnestness to work. Indeed, very 
few, compared with the great mass of Christians, make any 
decided sacrifices at all for the spread of the Gospel. How 
many are contributing liberally to support missionaries in the 
field ? How many are willing to go into the field and bear 
the heat and burden incident to such a service ? We some- 
times wonder why our missionary meetings and conven- 
tions are not better attended than they are. But the reason 
is not difficult to find. We must never expect interest where 
there is no capital. If Christians do not invest in our mis- 
sionary enterprises, we cannot hope that they will come to our 
meetings to hear about missionary work. You cannot ex- 
pect a good angler to watch intently the cork on his line when 
he knows he has put no bait on the hook. When we can 
persuade Christians to put bait on their missionary hooks, 
there will not be much difficulty in getting them to watch the 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 75 

corks. They will then come to our missionary meetings in 
order that they may learn what success has attended their 
investments. A new era of consecration and service will send 
thousands of missionaries into heathen lands, and will at the 
same time bring millions of dollars into the missionary treas- 
uries for the support of the Gospel. 

(3) . And lastly, the coming church will bring a new era 
of triumphs and peace. We are just now standing on the 
verge of a new century, and I cannot help believing that this 
new century contains within its hidden folds a marvelous rec- 
ord of this world's history. But we who are now men and 
women can hope to see only the beginning of the glories 
which will be revealed. And yet this beginning will probably 
be more wonderful than anything our eyes have ever beheld. 
The past hundred years have been crowded with events which 
point to the coming of a new era, and this era is even now 
beginning to dawn upon the world. The beginning of a new 
year always has in it considerable significance to those who 
recognize the value of every moment of time. But the be- 
ginning of a new century is often the turning point with ref- 
erence to some of the most important matters connected with 
human destiny. Who can estimate the progress that has 
been made within the last hundred years ? Looked at from 
almost any point of view, the century which is just closing 
has had no parallel in the history of this planet. It began 
with a revival of the religious spirit, and especially the mis- 
sionary spirit, and it is ending with a record which promises 
much for the twentieth century. With respect to other mat- 
ters, if I were to count up the gains and give you the result, 
you would be startled at what has really been accomplished. 
Science has walked hand-in-hand with religion. The nine- 
teenth century has given us the wonderful achievements of 
steam-power and electricity. It has practically annihilated 
distance in travel both by water and land, and especially in 
the use of the' railway. But, not enough that the earth should 
be bound with iron bands, iron nerves must pierce and trans- 
pierce the whole, creating throughout the civilized world 
one common emporium, and bringing nations which but a 
century ago were beyond the reach of fraternal sympathy 



76 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

within whispering distance of each other. We have only to 
look around us at this great World's exhibition in order to 
have some conception of the point we have reached in phys- 
ical progress. And if nearly all this is the result of the past 
hundred years, what may we not expect of the century which 
is to come ? As regards religious matters, there is certainly 
good ground for hope. There is an unmistakable breaking 
up of the old ecclesiasticisms, and almost a complete break- 
down of the authority of human creeds. Doubtless the pres- 
ent confusion will be fraught with some evil. This is pre- 
cisely what we ought to expect. There has never yet been a 
great forward movement in the interests of good, right and 
truth which was not opposed by another movement in the 
interests of evil, wrong and error. And the influence of the 
latter will usually be considerably augmented if it can coun- 
terfeit the best efforts of the former. When Moses and Aaron 
were performing their miracles in the land of Egypt with a 
view to the deliverance of God's oppressed people, the forces 
of evil were intensely active in imitating the miracles which 
were wrought by Divine power. And when Christ was here 
on earth performing His miracles, the whole demon-world 
was stirred to its uttermost to neutralize His power by imi- 
tating His works. Perhaps there never was a time of greater 
activity on the part of Satan's forces than when our Divine 
Lord was here in person superintending the establishment 
of His kingdom. 

And we ought to learn a lesson from all this. That les- 
son is that when there is little activity among God's chil- 
dren there may not be a corresponding indifference on the 
part of the powers of evil; but when God's people are deeply 
in earnest, and are waging an aggressive warfare upon the 
strongholds of Satan, then we may be well assured that all 
the forces of evil will be brought activefy into the field. 

And if we should find some such state of things as I have 
described prevailing at the present time, surely no one ought 
to be astonished. There is just now very great activity 
among religious people. It may not be as great as some de- 
sire, and it is certainly not as great as it ought to be; and 
yet it is far greater than at any period within the recollection 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 77 

of the present generation. I do not now refer simply to the 
actual work that is being accomplished. Very much is be- 
ing done in this direction, but this does not represent all 
that we mean by activity. Thought logically goes before 
action, and it is the thinking of the present hour that is 
making highways for the workers of the future. There can 
be no doubt about the fact that some of this thinking is in a 
crude state, but even this ought to be reasonably expected. 
Mind no more than matter can emerge from chaos without 
bringing with it some of the darkness with which it" was en- 
shrouded. For many years the religious mind has been 
slowly working its way out of the darkness of the Middle 
Ages, and considering that it has had to overcome so many 
difficulties, there is certainly much reason for rejoicing at the 
progress that has been made. 

At any rate, it appears to me that we are just now stand- 
ing upon the dividing line of two ages. The age of struggle, 
conflict, war, but nevertheless the age of mighty achieve- 
ments, is rapidly passing away. The age to come will be one 
which at least will not be entirely without the characteristics 
of the age now passing. But the new age will be especially 
distinguished for its great victories in all tne departments of 
human progress. It will be strongly marked by the spirit 
of unity which will everywhere prevail. The ushering in of 
the church of the future will at least be the beginning of that 
happy time foretold in prophecy, when the church shall be- 
come universal, and when national life shall become ecumen- 
ical — in' other words, when the nations of the earth and the 
church of Jesus Christ shall become co-extensive. In fact, 
the new age will bring us to that happy period 
* ' When the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle-flags are furled, 
In the parliament of man, the federation of the world." 




J. H. Garrison. 



BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, THE KEY TO 

SOME RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS * 



J. H. GARRISON. 



"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our like- 
ness. * * * So God created man in his own image, in the image 
of God created he him; male and female created he them." — 
Gen. i: 26, 27. 

Perhaps the symbol or character that would most fitly 
represent this age is the interrogation point. It is an age of 
profound questioning of everything in the heavens above 
and in the earth beneath. There is nothing so sacred or so 
venerable as to escape the interrogation point. The three 
great questions of this age, and of the ages, are : 

1 . What is man, what kind of a being is he ? 

2. Who is Christ, and the God whom He reveals ? 

3. What salvation or destiny has He prepared for man ? 
The man that is not interested in these questions gives 

evidence of partial, or total, obscuration of that which is most 
distinctive of our human nature — its rational and moral 
faculties. 

It is proof of the superiority of the Bible to all other books 
in the world that it is the only book that furnishes satisfactory 
answers to these great questions; and in that fact, in my 
judgment, lies the Bible's supreme claim to the confidence and 
acceptance of men, and also its charter for an assured immor- 
tality in the literature of the world. The fact that this book 
alone, among all the volumes and tomes of the libraries of 
the world, answers these three great questions of the human 
soul, makes it the Book of books. Think you that the 

*Stenographically reported by Miss M. M. Gilmer. 



82 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

destructive critics are likely to overthrow such a book as 
this ? And the sooner we come to recognize the fact that it 
is because the Bible speaks to the human heart as no other 
book does on these great themes, that it is a Divine book, the 
sooner we will cease to be alarmed at the inquiries and 
investigations concerning its genuineness. The fact that the 
Bible opens to us more windows in heaven than all the 
libraries of the earth, and has a dynamic force which they do 
not possess, is the reason why it has such a hold upon our 
humanity, and the reason why we need entertain no fears 
whatever as to its destiny. Its safety is secure. We may 
look on undaunted at all the crucial investigations it is now 
undergoing at the hands of critics. A book that brings 
satisfactory answers to these great questions, the world will 
not easily let go. Until somebody invents a better book — one 
that will furnish more satisfactory answers to these vital 
questions — the world will hold on to the Bible. 

Now let us test this old Book on one of these questions I 
have suggested, namely, "What is man?" If we put the 
question to materialistic science for an answer — that part of 
science which takes no note of man's spiritual nature or of 
the phenomena associated therewith — the answer is, ' ' Man 
is a splendid animal. He stands at the very summit of the 
animal creation. He is a piece of finely organized clay. He is 
a marvelous organism; but at death he is dissolved back into 
his original elements, and that is all there is of him. There 
is no part of him that survives the grave, for we have 
analyzed him scientifically, and we find nothing in him but 
the material. ' ' Are you satisfied with that answer ? Does it 
meet the demands of your heart ? Nay, it does not meet the 
demands of your reason. If that is all there is of man, why 
these longings and aspirations after something better, some- 
thing higher ? Why would God mock us by putting in our 
hearts this deathless aspiration, to end only in the grave? 

Turn from materialism, and make your inquiry of Agnos- 
ticism, "What is man?" and it replies with a show of 
modesty: "We do not know that there is, or that there 
is not, anything in man that will survive the grave. We 
do not know that there is any God. If there be a God, 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 83 

He is unknowable. The whole question of God's existence 
and man's destiny lies beyond the range of any evidence we 
can accept. We do not know." Does that satisfy? Are 
you willing to take that to the death-bed of your dying 
mother and read it ? Are you willing to lie down on your 
own death-bed with only that for a pillow? No; you turn 
away heart-sick from science and philosophy, and, turning to 
the old Bible your mother loved so well, you open its lids, 
and on its faded pages, bearing, it may be, the tear-stains of 
your mother or of your father, you read the answer to the 
question, " What is man?" in these marvelous words I have 
quoted: ' ' Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
* * * So God created man in his own image, in the 
image of God created he him; male and female created he 
them." 

These are, indeed, wonderful words. We fail to be 
startled at them and their wonderful significance only because 
of their familiar sound. Prof. Caird, in his "Evolution of 
Religion," sees in Greek art, sculpture and poetry, evidence 
that the Grecian mind recognized in man a higher expression 
of Divinity than was to be found in the works of nature, and 
argues that the Greek religion was therefore an upward step 
from the grosser idolatry of the Hast in the direction of 
monotheism. I ask you to consider the fact that the author 
of Genesis, whoever he may have been, writing centuries 
before Grecian philosophy had reached its acme, not only 
recognized the one true God, but saw in man an incarnation 
of Divinity, and rose to the sublime thought, above all 
pantheism and idolatry, that "man is created in the image 
of God. ' ' Now let us approach that passage reverently, while 
we ask in what sense it can be true that man, whom science 
pronounces to be simply clay, is akin to God, and has been 
made in His likeness. It cannot be that he is in the cor- 
poreal image of God, for "God is a spirit," and, for that 
matter, man is a spirit too. He may exist in the body or out 
of the body; it is no essential part of man. It is, therefore, 
in his immaterial nature that we must look for this likeness. 
Affirmatively, then, we may say that man is created in the 
image of God intellectually, or mentally, because, as the 



84 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

astronomer Kepler expressed it, "We can think God's 
thoughts after Him." We are capable of seeing God's plan 
in the numerous adaptations of this material world to man's 
wants. Because we can trace out the laws that govern the 
material universe, and see how God made it, and why He made 
it, and thus follow God's plan in the material world, we are 
sure that man is created in the mental image of God. Other- 
wise, the universe would appear to him as it does to other 
animals. It presents no plan or purpose to the mere animal. 
Man is the only creature who is capable of seeing God's 
thought materialized in order and beauty. And again, the 
very fact that God has spoken to man is evidence that he is 
created in God's image intellectually; otherwise, God's reve- 
lation would be unintelligible. We do not speak to those 
who do not understand us. We do not enter into moral 
discussions with our horse, our dog, or even the anthropoid 
ape. Why not ? Because, not being in our image mentally, 
we cannot convey to them these great thoughts. I hold that 
God's revelation made to man is evidence of his creation in 
the intellectual image of God. 

Man is created also in the moral image of God. How do 
we know that? Because man's moral sense approves the 
moral law of God. When God says in His moral law 
" Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not murder; Thou shalt 
not lie," man's moral nature responds at once: "That is 
right; a man ought not to do these things." He may steal, 
he may lie, he may murder, but he knows that in doing these 
things he is doing wrong, and violating not only God's moral 
law as written in the decalogue, but the same moral law as 
written upon man's own nature. God so made man that he 
can not disobey His will without at the same time doing 
violence to his own nature. You can see at once that if man 
did not have a moral nature like that of God, it would do 
away with all accountability to God. If, for instance, when 
God. says "Thou shalt not murder," man's moral nature 
should say, " It is right to murder, and I must murder, my 
conscience condemns me if I fail to murder, ' ' then, if God 
should condemn man for committing murder, He would 
condemn him for being true to his own nature, which we 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 85 

cannot conceive. I take it then as beyond contradiction that 
man's moral nature is like God's; that God created him in 
His own image morally, and placed in every man's bosom a 
witness (some one has called it God's vicegerent on earth) 
which condemns him when he goes contrary to its behest, 
and which approves him when he does that which he believes 
to be right. 

But still further: Man is created in the image of God 
volitionally\ that is, as to his will. The latest word in 
science is, that behind all phenomena in the material uni- 
verse, behind all motion, behind all force, is the will of the 
Supreme Being of the universe. We know that behind all 
man's acts lies the decision of his will. God is a free, self- 
determining Being, who chooses, decides and acts. In 
creating man, He gave him the same freedom of will, the 
power to choose his own destiny, free from any compulsion, 
and to act according to his own choosing. I know there is a 
school of theologians, and of philosophers, too, for that 
matter, that call in question this freedom of the will. But 
against all the theological reasoning and all the philosoph- 
ical speculation, I place the testimony of every man's 
consciousness — that he has the power to do or not to do 
certain acts. You simply know that. You cannot be 
beguiled into believing anything to the contrary. Other- 
wise, it would be impossible for you to feel any sense of re- 
morse. No man's conscience condemns him for doing what 
he cannot avoid doing. It is only what we have the power 
to do, and ought to do, but do not; or what we have the 
power to refrain from doing, and ought to refrain from doing, 
and yet do, that gives us a sense of demerit. So the very 
fact that our conscience condemns us for any act is evidence 
of our freedom of will. This truth has a very wide applica- 
tion. The whole realm of theology and soteriology hangs 
upon it. 

Some one may say: "That was a very dangerous sort 
of being for God to turn loose in the universe — a man 
made in God's image morally, intellectually, volitionally, 
and yet put into clay and allied to the earth. ' ' Yes, there is 
no question about that. Somebody has said that nothing 



86 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

creates such a commotion as a thinker turned loose in the 
world. But here is not only a thinker turned loose, but 
a moral judge and a chooser as well. But God had this 
alternative: He must either create a being who would have 
the power to do evil if he desired to do it, or He must 
make a machine, whose action would possess no moral 
quality. God did not care to make a machine. Men could 
make machines. He wanted to create a man. He wanted 
to create a being who would reflect His glory and His char- 
acter. They could not be fully reflected in the material 
universe nor in all the lower orders of life. I think, too, 
that the Infinite Being, who is most fitly described by the 
name IyOve, wanted a being in the universe that could love 
Him. In all the material universe — mountains, seas, lakes, 
and among all the lower animals — there was not a being sus- 
ceptible of a single emotion of gratitude to the Divine hand 
that gave it being. Think you not that God hungered for some 
response, some being that would love ffim ? And so, with 
the alternative before Him, knowing that if He made a being 
that could not do wrong, He would make at the same time a 
being that could not do right, He accepted the responsibility, 
and created man in His own image. And here, my brethren, 
is the true basis for an optimistic view of the world. I am 
an optimist; and I like to have a rational basis for any view 
I may hold. The infinite God, as gracious and benevolent 
as He is omniscient and omnipotent, with all the pages of 
human history unfolded before Him — pages of crime, of 
sorrow, of struggle and defeat, of progress and victory — 
chose to create, and, as a matter of fact, did create, man in 
His own image. That would have been impossible had not 
God foreseen that the final outcome of human history would 
be a justification for creating man in His image. So, what- 
ever clouds may obscure the sun, and whatever reflex 
currents there may be in the tide of human progress, I still 
believe that the God who made and rules the universe, and 
who created man in His own image, will bring order and 
harmony and victory at last out of all this struggle and 
apparent defeat. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 87 

THE KEY APPLIED. 

Now, I want to take this great, luminous truth that 
stands here in the forefront of the Bible and apply it to some 
of the difficult problems in religion. Others will occur to 
you capable of solution by the same key. When we get a 
great truth like this, it is not wise to lay it away as if it had 
no vital relation to other truths. One truth will help us to 
understand another. Tennyson expressed this thought in 
the profound lines: 

"Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies; 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

Little flower — but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God and man is." 

To know one truth, in all its relations, is to know all 
truth. And so let us take this truth and apply it to the solution 
of some of those great problems that have puzzled so many 
thoughtful, serious people. One of the great problems to 
which I would apply this truth is 

I. THE POSSIBILITY OF THE INCARNATION. 

To-day the most prominent word in religious discussion 
is the incarnation, and a great many good people stumble at 
that doctrine. They see the moral beauty of Christ's char- 
acter, and are willing to crown Him master or king of men; 
but they cannot accept the supreme truth of the incarnation 
— the stooping down of the Son of God from heavenly 
heights to earthly conditions. It seems to me this great 
truth of man's nature throws light on this question. If man 
is created morally, intellectually and volitionally in God's 
image, I can understand the possibility of the incarnation. 
Reverently let me say it, I cannot see how the doctrine of the 
incarnation could be held independently of this great truth of 
man's creation in the image of God. I cannot see how God 
could manifest His character in a being not created in His own 
image. Try to think of the possibility of God's taking the 
form of any lower animal — say a dog, or a horse, or an 



88 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

ape — and in either of these forms manifesting His glory, 
righteousness, truth, and His infinite love for the world ! 
It is inconceivable. Why ? Because these lower orders of 
beings were not created in the image of God, and are in- 
capable of receiving into themselves the divinity to express 
the Divine character. Ah ! that is a marvelous fact, that the 
eternal Logos, existing before all worlds, should clothe 
Himself in flesh, and fill out to its utmost possibility this 
human nature with the inflowing life of God ! He thus 
manifests to principalities and to powers His glory, His 
character and His truth. Of course, if God is to manifest 
Himself in the flesh, it must be subject to human conditions 
and limitations. Some, as it seems to me, superficial critics 
have been unable to accept the doctrine of the true and essen- 
tial divinity of Jesus Christ, because, when in the world, He 
hungered, He was weary, He wept, He died. There are 
indications of certain self-limitations which are necessarily 
involved in His taking our human nature. He said, ' ' The 
time of the coming of the Son of man is known only to the 
Father, not to the angels, not even to the Son." Is that a 
reason to call in question His divinity ? He said again, 
"My Father is greater than I." Read that grand word of 
Paul: "Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a 
prize — a thing to be seized — to be on an equality with God, 
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being 
made in the likeness of men." What a fact! The infinite 
Son of God took upon Him this self-limitation as a necessary 
result of His incarnation, that He might work out the great 
problem of human redemption on a common plane with man. 
Was He less divine for so doing ? Was King Alfred less a 
king when he went down among his subjects in the garb of 
a peasant and visited their humble homes, and shared their 
poverty, that he might understand and better their condition ? 
Was he not all the more a king because he was willing to do 
that for the love he bore his subj ects ? Shall we pay less honor 
to Jesus Christ because He was willing to stoop down and take 
upon Himself these necessary limitations in order to bear our 
sins, and thus accomplish the redemption of the race ? A 
thousand times, No ! 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 89 

Not only does this primal truth show the possibility of 
the incarnation, it furnishes or suggests also, 

II. THE MOTIVE OF THE INCARNATION. 

Now, a great many good people have been seriously 
puzzled as to why the Son of God should come to this earth, 
which, astronomy tells us, is a very small speck in the uni- 
verse. Why, it is asked, should God make this planet the 
scene of the marvelous tragedy of the crucifixion ? I re- 
member there came to my camp once in the mountains a 
man who announced to me, almost under his breath, that 
he had lost faith in God. He could not believe that God 
would send His only begotten Son to an insignificant world 
like this, to become incarnate, to suffer, bleed and die for 
such a race. That was more than he could accept. And 
I think the Psalmist had some such thought when he said: 
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is 
man that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man, 
that thou visitest him? " I find the answer to these ques- 
tions in the fact that man is the child of God, created in His 
image. Is not that a sufficient motive for the incarnation, 
and for all the suffering of the Son of God? Has any- 
body been puzzled to understand why the father of Charlie 
Ross traveled all over the world, following every rumor, 
that he might find his boy ? Did you need any explanation 
of that fact ? Not if you had a boy. How far would you 
follow 3^our boy ? Would you stop at the Mississippi River, 
state lines, or national boundaries? No, you would cross 
the ocean, go round the world, spend all your money, mort- 
gage the farm and homestead, that you might find the dear 
boy and bring him back to the old home. Certainly 3 r ou 
would. I know you would if you have a paternal heart. 
But man is the child of God. I know we have obscured 
that truth, or let it fall into the background, for fear we 
would in some way lower the necessity of regeneration, 
and of adoption into the family of God, and becoming 
children of God by grace. But this cannot be ; for this 
fact of our being children of God by grace has no meaning 



90 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

only as it is based on the primal sonship — our having been 
created in the image of God mentally, morally and volition- 
ally. I know of no truth that has more power to win man 
than to go and tell him, " No matter how sinful you are, no 
matter how low you have fallen, you are a child of God; you 
bear the stamp of Divinity upon you. Come home, wander- 
ing child, come home! " The prodigal son was still a son 
out in the swine-fields. He was a lost son, it is true, but 
he was a son. Let us lift up that old truth that stands in 
the forefront of the Bible, give it its original prominence, 
and we shall find the true motive of the incarnation, and 
understand that the long journey of the Son of God to this 
earth was to search for His Father's lost children, to bring 
them back to the Father's house. I see also in this truth 

III. THE NECESSITY OF THE INCARNATION. 

With certain theories of man's nature and condition, 
there is no necessity for the incarnation, and the cross is 
without meaning. It has no place in such a theory. If a 
man is to be converted and regenerated independently of the 
laws of his mental and moral nature, by naked omnipotence, 
there is no meaning in the incarnation and the cross. But 
a being created in the image of God, mentally, morally and 
volitionally, cannot be driven into the kingdom of God; 
he must be won by high and mighty motives. God knew 
man was such a being, and so furnished the mightiest 
motives known to God: He sent His Son into this world — 
His only begotten Son — as the highest possible exhibition 
of His love. And the divine Son hurried to the world that 
God so loved, to rescue man from his lost condition. That 
was the measure of God's love, and it is God's argument 
and motive to win man. Whatever else it accomplishes, it 
breaks down the stubborn will of man, convincing him of 
the love and compassion of God, and drawing him by 
moral force back into the arms of the Father. I can see 
the necessity for the incarnation and the cross to save such 
a being as man, with a mind to see, a heart to feel, and a 
will to decide. No being of less dignity and power than 
the Son of God could be the Saviour of men. So much as 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 91 

to the bearing of this truth on Christology. It has an im- 
portant bearing, also, on 

IV. SOTERIOLOGY, OR THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE 
SALVATION PROMISED TO MAN IN THE GOSPEL. 

The author of the Hebrew letter speaks of "so great 
salvation" offered to man. A being possessed of these 
great possibilities — great even in his ruins, defaced by sin, 
and out of harmony with his own nature and with the 
moral universe — is to be saved. He is so great a being that 
the world cannot satisfy the hunger of his soul. We have 
an explanation here, too, of that great restlessness that 
marks the human race. Away from God it cannot be satis- 
fied. The spirit came from Him, and can find complete 
satisfaction only in Him. It is said if you take a shell from 
the ocean's shore thousands of miles inland, and put it to 
your ear, it will sing of its ocean home. Its convolutions 
murmur the music of the deep sea. So of the soul wan- 
dering far from God. A superficial observer will say, " It 
is all bad, and wholly evil; " but bend down your ear close 
enough to its inmost heart, and you will find it moaning 
out its lamentation for God — the great and mighty God. 
Not always conscious of its needs, the heart of man yet 
hungers for God, and in its blindness runs into all manner 
of excess and dissipation to find rest. Such a being re- 
quires a ' ' great salvation " to be commensurate with the 
greatness of the being that is to be saved, and the greatness 
of his needs. 

Again, this key-truth marks out the boundaries of this 
great salvation. If man was created in the image of God 
mentally, morally and volitionally, salvation means noth- 
ing less than the restoration of God's image to man in all 
these departments of his nature. Mentally, man has been 
dwarfed by sin. He sees but a few things, and these 
imperfectly. Instead of walking the earth the glorious 
being he might have been had not sin obscured his vision, 
he is a mere pigmy. This "great salvation" will make 
him whole in intellect. He knows here only in part; after 
a while he will know even as he is known. This is to me 



92 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

one of the most entrancing visions of the future life. We 
are to go on and on forever advancing in knowledge. Freed 
from the blinding power of sin, unfettered by the limita- 
tions of the body, and under the direct tuition of the great 
Teacher, we shall scale the hitherto inaccessible heights of 
wisdom, and will have such visions of God and of His 
moral universe as are impossible to us while we are in the 
flesh. We shall be saved intellectually. 

And so, too, morally, man is maimed, wounded, dwarfed; 
but he is, under happier influences, to be developed and 
rounded out in beautiful symmetry like his Master, in the 
society of "the spirits of just men made perfect." You 
say, (i Not now." Then hereafter, for this work must go on 
and on until it is accomplished. It is God's predestined pur- 
pose that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Our 
Presbyterian friends silenced Professor Briggs for believing, 
among other things, in progressive sanctification after death. 
I do not know that I ever believed or preached anything 
else. I declare my faith, my untroubled faith, in the pro- 
gressive sanctification, both now and on the other side of 
the death line, of every Christian, until he be brought into 
the complete image of Jesus Christ; and if that be heresy, 
my brethren, you must make the most of it. 

Man's will, too, is to be so harmonized with the will of 
God, that in doing the very things he desires he will be 
acting along the line of God's will and purposes. All con- 
flict between man's will and God's will must end in his will's 
being merged into that of God. Not that man will lose his 
individuality, but his volitions will spring from a will har- 
monized with God's will. And the body of our humiliation 
— even that is to be fashioned like unto the glorious body of 
our I^ord Jesus Christ, according to the working whereby 
He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. This is, in- 
deed, a glorious salvation. It is not the mechanical idea 
of salvation — that a man is to be saved because he gets into 
a place called heaven, or is lost if he is put into a place 
called hell. Salvation consists, rather, according to the 
view I have presented, in being restored to the image of 
God. It is character built after the Divine pattern. Noth- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 93 

ing short of this is salvation in its highest Biblical meaning, 
and no other salvation would be adequate for a being 
created in the image of God. 

THE CONSUMMATION. 

Sometimes I have a vision — it must be a dim one com- 
pared with the reality — of redeemed manhood. I see a 
being of wondrous beauty standing beside his Master, and 
looking like Him. He has a kingly bearing, and from his 
eye there flashes the fire of an immortal genius. There is 
a crown upon his brow, a scepter is in his hand, and he is 
sharing lordship in the universe with the Lord Jesus Christ. 
I ask, who is that wonderful being? and an angel answers, 
" It is man, redeemed and glorified, and made like unto his 
Master — God's work completed in him." That is only one 
man. Take human society, for this great salvation does 
not stop at the individual man. It saves society, breaking 
down all caste, all division- walls, severing all chains, lifting 
all men up to a common level under the great Fatherhood 
of God. This is an essential part of the truth that ' ' Man is 
created in the image of God. ' ' When that truth is rightly un- 
derstood, society will be reconstructed, and men will crown 
Jesus Christ King of kings, and He shall rule in business, 
in commerce, in politics, in social life. And God's will 
shall be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven. The 
New Jerusalem will have descended from God out of heaven, 
and the glad earth, redeemed from sin, will reflect back 
the smile of God. Then shall we hear the grand hallelujah 
chorus, ' ' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, 
and glory, and blessing, forever and ever." Amen and 
amen ! 




B. J. Radford. 



CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY SOLUTION OF 
THE PROBLEMS OF THE AGE. 



B. J. RADFORD, LL.D. 

The wrongs and abuses designated ' ' The Problems of the 
Age" in the subject assigned me are the result of human 
imperfection. If humanity could be made perfect, these 
problems, however perplexing, would vanish. The whole 
movement of history is but the resultant of the clashing 
forces of humanity. It abounds in dark and bloody chapters 
because man has been what he has been; if the future 
chapters shall be bright and bloodless, it will be because man 
shall have become what he ought to be. To say that man 
can never become what he ought to be is to impeach the 
wisdom of his Creator. This argues the perfectibility of 
humanity. This is a dogma, too, of the latest and best 
philosophy. Matthew Arnold was looking upon a broad and 
manifest "stream of tendency" when he declared that some 
power not of ourselves was making for righteousness. The 
supreme generalization of the whole evolution philosophy, 
according to Herbert Spencer, is — "It is certain that 
humanity will become perfect." 

But Mr. Spencer was led to this conclusion by a study of 
human possibilities as .they have been developed for centuries 
in an environment permeated by a Christian atmosphere. 
While a thorough study of human possibilities shows the 
perfectibility of man, as a matter of fact no environment out- 
side the influence of Christianity has ever so developed those 
possibilities as to indicate that man ever would become 
perfect. Under the influence of Christianity, however, we 
see man " going on to perfection" so steadily as to lead the 



98 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

most observing thinkers to the conclusion that the injunction 
of the Great Teacher, * ' Be ye, therefore, perfect, ' ' is not im- 
practicable. 

Leaving out of the calculation the perfectibility of man, 
the " Problems of the Age," or of any age, are insoluble. 
The only hope for the abolition, or even the amelioration, of 
the great evils thus designated is the going on to perfection, 
which is the great fact of Christian evolution, whether studied 
in the individual or in the mass. But Christianity not only 
proclaims the perfectibility of man — it also supplies the 
means. It marks out in prophecy the way of human evolu- 
tion, and supplies the factors which secure its complete 
working out. 

To make good this claim, it must be shown that Christi- 
anity is a necessary factor in man's highest possible intellectual 
development, as well as in his moral and spiritual develop- 
ment. It is a singular and significant fact that outside of the 
influence of Christianity, as shown by the late M. de Can- 
dolle in a survey of the science and scientists of the last two 
centuries, there is none of that high intellectual progress 
of which we boast; and that within the sphere of this 
influence progress and high achievement are observed most 
where that influence is greatest. During the last two cen- 
turies the majority of the great leaders in scientific thought 
have been clergymen or the sons of clergymen. To the 
unbiased mind these broad facts are decisive as to the neces- 
sity of Christianity as a factor in man's intellectual evolution 
— in bringing about that stage of intellectual perfection upon 
which the solution of the problems of this age depend as 
directly as upon his moral perfection. But all minds are not 
unbiased, and we must show how and why Christianity is a 
necessary influence in man's higher intellectual progress. 

It is universally agreed among scientists that the develop- 
ment of the species runs parallel with that of the individual, 
and history bears witness that the intellectual evolution of the 
species man runs parallel with that of the individual man. 
By studying this development we can determine what rela- 
tion the teachings of Christianity bear to it, and whether they 
will ever be outgrown; in other words, whether they con- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 99 

tribute to man's intellectual progress in its highest possible 
ranges. 

There are in the intellectual development of a man four 
distinct stages : (1.) That in which the mind busies itself 
with the world of space; with the ego and the non ego, and 
seeks to arrange the 71071 ego with respect to the ego, and with 
respect to its own parts, as all occupy space. (2) . That in 
which the phenomena of nature are grouped and studied by 
likenesses and contrasts; in which likeness is the associa- 
tional bond for the objects of the universe and all materials 
of thought. At first, in the child's intellectual activity, the 
likeness noted is that of form, species — intimately associ- 
ated with the first stage of space relations; afterwards like- 
ness in qualities and uses, analogies. (3.) That in which 
the mind takes hold of the more hidden associational threads 
of cause and effect, and seeks to weave them into a philo- 
sophic pattern which shall comprehend all objects, all 
phenomena. (4.) That in which the mind is not satisfied 
with the half explanation of things which the scientific setting 
forth of causes affords; when the doctrine of beginnings 
must be supplemented and complemented by the doctrine of 
ends; when the genetic lines which have been traced back- 
ward until they have converged in the great Efficient Cause 
must be traced forward until they converge in the great 
Final Cause. 

We can easily outline these stages as far as they have 
appeared in the intellectual evolution of our race. All the 
monuments of man's art, from ancient mounds and pyramids 
to the exquisite statues of Phidias and Praxitiles, are in the 
period of space-relations. The first thing sought was im- 
mense size, as the first thing the child does with his play- 
blocks is to pile them as high as he can. So mounds, and 
walls, and temples, and pyramids bear this common charac- 
teristic. They are monuments of the play block period of the 
world's intellectual babyhood. By and by space-relations 
took on the finer character "of outline and proportion, and 
the ambition was to reach perfection in this line. Mere size 
gave way to this new aim, which culminated in the Parthenon, 
a piece of perfection according to the canons of outline and 



ioo WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

proportion. But outline and proportion reached their limit, 
their most complex development, in statuary. The Greek 
statue exhausted the possibilities of space-relations, and so it 
marks the hither boundary of man's first intellectual stathmos. 
Newton, who belonged to another intellectual period, could 
never understand how the Greeks could make so much of 
" stone dolls. " And that is just what these statues were, 
and that is just why the Greeks were interested in them. 
They were the dolls of the world's intellectual childhood, 
just as pyramids and temples had been the play blocks of its 
intellectual babyhood. During the same period there were 
but two sciences, geometry and astronomy — sciences occupied 
with space-relations. The metaphysical sciences, built upon 
likeness and contrast, had not been born, and those of our 
day, based upon causation, the sciences of origins and 
geneses, were but dimly foreshadowed in the most nebulous 
superstitions. 

In the second period all the monuments of art bear the 
marks of likeness and contrast. The "sister arts" — paint- 
ing, poetry and music — have this kinship; they are born of 
Likeness and Contrast in age-lasting wedlock. Painting 
developed first, as being more directly related to the space- 
relations of the first stage. Space-relations must be regarded 
in the drawing, but the glory and beauty, the witchery of 
painting, were in the power of likeness and contrast — light 
and shade, tint against tint, unity in variety. Some of the 
great masters were inaccurate draughtsmen — weak in space- 
relations, but mighty with the weapons of likeness and con- 
trast. Then came poetry, still more emancipated from the 
laws of space-relations, but not wholly free. The rhetoric 
books say, " Poetry is beautiful thought expressed in beau- 
tiful language." Beautiful indeed, but it would leave out 
much ' ' poetry' ' and take in more ' ' prose. ' ' Poetry is 
thought embodied by the canons of likeness and contrast, 
just as architecture and statuary embody thought by the 
canons of space-relation. The foundation of its mechanical 
structure is rhythm; the finish and crown of it is rhyme. At 
first there was only rhythm, the contrasted syllables recur- 
ring in the pleasing succession of like feet. It is a curious 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 101 

instance of the persistence of ideas, that the syllables in 
ancient rhythm were called long and short — the persistence of 
the old idea of space-relations. But in rhythm there is a 
preponderance of contrast, which makes blank verse monoto- 
nous even in the hands of a Milton or a Bryant. To remedy 
this an element of likeness was added in rhyme. So much 
for the body of poetry, and the very soul of it is metaphor, 
simile, antithesis, allegory — all poetic figure belongs to 
this weird, witching domain of likeness and contrast. We 
catch the gleam of a thought as it flits through our intellectual 
environment here; we catch a gleam from the same thought 
as it flits yonder in another quarter, and it is of a different hue. 
We set gleam over against gleam, and call it antithesis. We 
catch the gleam of a thought here, and of another thought 
yonder, and they are strangely alike. We set gleam over 
against gleam and call it simile. Two burning thoughts 
leave long parallel meteor- trails in their course; we trace 
them together and call it allegory. So of all the meteorology 
of our poetical heavens. Music, "Heavenly Maid," is 
likewise born of Likeness and Contrast in holy wedlock; and 
the ' ' sister arts' ' belong to one and the same intellectual 
stage. 

We see, therefore, how each art has its place in the order 
of the development of humanity. In the intellectual pro- 
cession of the world's grand intellectual march, the builders 
come first, then the sculptors, then the painters, after them 
the poets and the musicians. Of course there is much 
lapping and overlapping, much straggling and confusing of 
the ranks, but to those who can look broadly over the whole 
historic plain the order is clear enough. But these have had 
their day; have all reached their high- water mark of universal 
interest and enthusiasm; have produced their masterpieces. 
The world's genius and enthusiasm will never again be 
centered upon the supreme endeavor to produce perfect 
Parthenons, or masterpieces in statuary, painting, poetry or 
music. The vanguard of the world's intellectual progress 
has already entered upon the higher plane of causation, and 
here is already centered the world's intellectual interest and 
enthusiasm; here is the field of present endeavor and desire. 



102 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

It was within this century that the threshold of this new 
stage was reached. Before that time science was only art. 
Plants and animals were grouped and studied by the canons 
of likeness and contrast. They were classified according to 
species — that is, appearance. When the new scientists insisted 
upon breaking up this old poetic arrangement, and began to 
arrange plants and animals along genetic lines — to inquire 
after causes and origins — there was a great outcry, as if they 
were doing some sacrilegious thing. Then, we might find 
ourselves in company with the ape or the lemur — who knew ? 
and that would never do. But the march went on, and the 
front is fairly in the field of Cause and Effect. No matter 
if it takes a generation or two to get our bearings, and 
meanwhile many mistakes are made, this crude and provi- 
sional, much misunderstood and maligned evolution phi- 
losophy marks a heroic and hopeful effort to discover how 
things came about. It must go on till it shall bind all 
phenomena together in the all-embracing network of causa- 
tion, and the network itself — the whole cosmos — to the 
great First Cause. 

Now, it is remarkable that the sun of the revelation by 
which Christianity is guided meets humanity first ' ' upon 
the upland lawn" of this lately-reached plane of intellectual 
progress. Its first utterance pertains to the domain of 
causation — is concerning the fundamental question of origins 
— "In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." Whether the doctrine be true or false, the doctrine 
of the Old Testament throughout is that of causation. 
Whether in creation or providence, God is represented as the 
efficient, active cause of all phenomena, and the Old Testa- 
ment covers the whole ground of our newest intellectual 
field. Instead of being beyond it, the world's intellectual van- 
guard is just fairly entering upon Bible ground. It would 
be pleasing and reassuring to point out in detail some agree- 
ments already reached by science and revelation; or, rather, 
some corroborations of revelation made by science; such as 
that there must be one undivided first cause (by whatever 
name we choose to call it) ; that this cause is ' ' all-sufficient" 
(Spencer), "All-Mighty" (Bible), " unwasting" (Spencer), 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 103 

' 'Everlasting' ' (Bible) , etc. ; but this is aside from our present 
purpose, which is to find out where the revelation upon 
which Christianity is based meets man in his intellectual 
progress. Now to the further inquiry as to how far this 
revelation can accompany the march, and so contribute to 
the end of human perfection. 

Recurring to the development of the individual, we find 
a fourth intellectual stage, in which the mind refuses to be 
satisfied with knowing how things came about. It sees that 
the single premise of causation can never explain the uni- 
verse, or any part of it. It inquires " What for?" This is 
the highest* intellectual stage possible to man as now con- 
stituted, so far as we can discern his potentialities; and when 
he has fully come to maturity, for aught we know he will be 
endowed with powers truly prophetic. In his intellectual 
progress through time, man may come to the continental 
divide whence he can look upon his future way, even to the 
Golden Gate which opens out upon the broad Pacific of 
eternity. We cannot here notice the many things which 
indicate that man will reach some height from which he can 
survey the whole horizon of time in every direction; but it is 
certain that not that of origins, but that of ends, will, be the 
final question of his philosophy. It is not strange that the 
philosophers of our day look with impatience and suspicion 
upon this doctrine of design. They will allow it to be 
brought in only through the back-door of causation, as 
" final cause," and accord it scant hospitality at that. In 
this they but follow the example of the intellectual leaders of 
the last stage in their attitude towards this new doctrine 
of origins and causes. But the objection of the scientists is 
"in order," for the question before the world's intellectual 
parliament now is as to causation. When, however, the 
final stage of design is reached, when the great question is 
no longer "How ?" but ' 'What for ?' ' — no longer ' 'Whence ?' ' 
but ' 'Whither ?' ' — man will find himself upon ground covered 
by the New Testament. Whether it shall prove a safe or 
unsafe guide through the as yet unexplored realm, Christian- 
ity does foresee and pre-occupy the ground — ' ' The testimony 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." It turns out, therefore, 



104 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

that the revelation upon which Christianity is founded, in 
which it is embodied, covers the whole ground of intellectual 
progress possible to our race. It begins with an all-compre- 
hensive declaration of causation, and ends with a final 
disposition of the universe. The philosophy of Christianity 
covers all the future way, and when man is sufficiently 
developed to deal with the Bible doctrine of design as he is 
now beginning to be able to deal with its doctrine of causa- 
tion, he will, no doubt, find it as all-comprehensive and 
impregnable in the former as he has found it in the latter. 
He will find, too, that the higher science of that day will 
depend as absolutely and helplessly upon Christian thought, 
as does the science of our day depend upon it; and how abso- 
lute and helpless that dependence is may be learned from M. 
Candolle's demonstration that there is no science outside of 
Christendom, and that the parsonage is the breeding-place 
of scientists. 

Christianity, therefore, takes into account all of man's 
intellectual possibilities; has a scope commensurate with his 
fullest possible intellectual progress. Man, however, is a 
worshiper as well as a philosopher. Worship is a matter of 
the emotions, and Christianity must present an object of 
worship calculated to inspire in the highest degree every 
emotion by which man is to be controlled, elevated and 
blessed, or it can never make him perfect. 

The lowest element of worship is fear. Among barbarous 
peoples it is almost universal and all-powerful. Its appropriate 
form of expression is sacrifice. Primitive men regarded the 
mighty forces of nature with awe and dread, as well as any 
embodiment of superhuman power. Jehovah met the ignor- 
ant Hebrews upon this plane at Sinai, revealing Himself as 
the Almighty, and inspiring them with that fear which is the 
beginning of worship as well as of wisdom, and which is also 
the beginning of all government and social order. A higher 
element of worship is admiration. A leader, a king, or a 
god may compel the obedience and following of men by an 
appeal to fear alone, but when he compels allegiance and 
sendee by exhibiting those qualities which appeal to admira- 
tion and imitation, he has vastly elevated them, and bound 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 105 

them more strongly and more nearly to himself than he 
could do by fear. The appropriate form of the worship of 
admiration is praise, and upon this ground and in this way 
all men are worshipers. Whether Hercules or Sullivan, 
Venus or Voltaire, Zeus, Baal, or Jehovah, men will have 
some object supposed to embody in extraordinary degree the 
qualities they most admire, and whose praises they delight 
to sing. On this ground we are all worshipers — pagan, 
infidel, atheist, Mohammedan and Christian. On this 
ground Jehovah met the Hebrews when He made revelation 
to them of His wisdom, justice, and other attributes calculated 
to excite this feeling of admiration. His first aspect was 
that of the Almighty; then of the All- wise. A still higher 
element of worship is gratitude. Men see in the fruitful 
earth, the fructifying sun, or somewhere, the benevolent 
source of blessings, and the emotion of gratitude calls for 
songs and ceremonies of thanksgiving, and this becomes a 
form of worship which has given the world some exalted 
idolatry: The wiseacre who said that all worship is an 
expression of fear, and that ' ' its every utterance comes from 
the blanched lips of terror," was not the third part of a 
philosopher; for there are at least two other elements of 
worship which are higher, nobler, and even mightier, than 
fear. Fear may account for the bleeding victims upon 
heathen altars, but cannot explain a single bud or petal of 
the garlands with which those victims were crowned. Fear 
never put a grain of incense upon any pagan censer. Gar- 
lands and sweet incense were offerings of gratitude, and 
Jehovah was constantfy appealing to the gratitude of His 
chosen people, by reminding them of the things which He 
had done for them, and the kindly Providence which always 
had attended, and always would attend, their obedient ways. 
But the highest, holiest and most powerful emotion is 
neither fear, nor admiration, nor gratitude, nor anything but 
love. It is most powerful for uplifting, controlling and 
blessing. Its form of expression is service and self-sacrifice. 
No system of worship can be complete which leaves this 
element out; nor can any system be perfect which does not 
give this highest emotion of the soul the chief place. Does 



106 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Christianity take note of this in proposing the final religion 
for humanity ? It is remarkable that in Christianity every 
element of worship is provided for. There is sacrifice for 
that fear of the penitent sinner which is the beginning of his 
religious experience; there is praise in the rich and lofty 
psalmody of the church for all the admiration which Divinit}^ 
in its most glorious attributes can call forth; there is thanks- 
giving in prayers and eucharistic ceremonies for all the grati- 
tude of which humanity is capable in view of priceless bless- 
ings; but, after all, the chief emphasis is put upon love and 
the self-denying service it prompts. Without this all the 
others go for nothing, and the evolution of Christian experi- 
ence is not complete until ' ' perfect' ' love has practically 
' ' cast out fear. ' ' Among savages the conjugal bond may be 
simply fear, but in the Christian household ' ' love has cast 
out fear." Nor does admiration or gratitude count for 
much in the latter case; and they count for nothing if there is 
no real love to give them perfection. Christianity, therefore, 
provides for every emotion by which men may be controlled, 
associated and exalted. Not only so, but it presents to every 
emotion the object which can call it out in the highest 
possible degree. The All-Mighty, All-Just, All-Glorious, 
All-Wise, All-Holy, All -Bountiful, All-Merciful, All-Loving 
One whom Christianity portrays sweeps the whole octave 
of man's emotional nature with an almighty hand. 

We see, then, that the worship prescribed by Christianity 
is absolutely exhaustive of man's emotional nature, and that 
it presents an object of worship embodying those attributes 
which appeal to the emotions, respectively, in the most 
powerful conceivable way, bringing it to bear most power- 
fully, and at the shortest range, in the domain of the highest 
of all emotions of which man, as now constituted, is capable. 
It can never become obsolete, therefore, while man is a wor- 
shiping being. But it must still be said that unless this 
supreme object of worship is manifested in the fullest and 
most perfect way possible, unless its attributes are brought to 
bear upon human nature at the shortest possible range by 
Christianity, it cannot be the highest and final religion of 
man — it cannot claim to have spoken the final word. It is 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 107 

evident, if not self-evident, that God could make the fullest 
possible revelation of Himself to man only in terms of man. 
The attributes of beauty, power, wisdom, may find partial 
manifestation in even inanimate forms, or in the operations 
of nature; but there are some, such as intelligence and 
affection, which can only find embodiment in living forms. 
They must be made flesh, or they have no word of communi- 
cation. But even beauty finds its fullest manifestation in 
man, and the highest art is that which with chisel or brush 
seeks to body forth manifold beauty in the human form. In 
its highest expression the human form is its only medium — 
art here is always anthropomorphic. How could God mani- 
fest His attributes to man so well as by translating them into 
flesh and blood ? How could He manifest His higher spir- 
itual attributes to man at all except as embodied in a loving, 
merciful, holy, spiritual man ? The word of civilization 
must be made flesh before it can be comprehended by bar- 
barism. We might send the Central Africans all our curious 
handiwork and our marvelous inventions, and they yet 
remain ignorant of what manner of beings we were, and 
uninfluenced towards higher things. We might send them 
the masterpieces of our art and our literature with the same 
result, but when we send them David Livingstone — the word 
of Christian civilization made flesh, an incarnation of a 
wisdom, gentleness and power of which they never dreamed 
— we have made the fullest possible revelation of ourselves to 
them, and brought to bear upon them the mightiest possible 
influence for uplift. So in the Jesus of the New Testament 
we have the fullest revelation of God that can ever be made 
to man, the most perfect illustration of what man ought to 
be, and no religion can ever improve upon Christianity in 
this respect. 

We see, then, that Christianity meets man upon the 
highest ranges of his intellectual progress — meets him at the 
threshold of the stage of Causation with the sublime declara- 
tion, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth, " and leads him on to where the gateways of time open 
outward and Godward. It makes him an intelligent and 
affectionate child of God, with head clearly comprehending, 



lo8 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

and heart fully responding to, that brotherhood of man 
which is as yet only a sentiment, but is to be the principle 
upon which all human problems must be solved. But before 
man becomes perfect, even in the degree which shall abolish 
wrongs, not only his intellectual and emotional natures 
must be fully developed, but also the volitional. What of 
Christianity as a purely ethical factor in human evolution ? 
"Theology is a matter of science, worship a matter of esthetics, 
t>ut a little reflection will show that a most potent factor in 
the solution of social problems is the ethical. 

Our three departments of government, which many seem 
to think were arbitrarily arranged by our fathers — the Exec- 
utive, the Legislative, and the Judicial — are deeply founded 
in human nature. The Executive represents force, and has 
for its province the control by physical means of the physical 
man — the suppression or direction of his physical appetites 
and activities. The Legislative stands for wisdom, policy. 
It seeks to control men and order society upon considerations 
of what is reasonable, what is politic. It appeals to the 
citizen's intellectual nature, as the Executive appeals to his 
emotional nature. But the Judicial department appeals to 
his moral nature; seeks to determine not what is possible to 
force, nor what is most politic, but what is just and right. 
Now our point here is that in the evolution of society the 
evident " stream of tendency" is more and more submerging 
the Executive (which was at first the supreme and only 
element of government) , and more and more bearing aloft 
upon its crest the Judicial, which at first was itself utterly 
submerged. Then the Executive, in the person of the king, 
was all there was of government. He " was the State," and 
it was necessarily so in times when brute passion and 
violence held universal sway. As intelligence increased, a 
man would rise up here and there who would be influenced 
more by a show of reason than a show of force; who could be 
more readily governed by policy than by power. After a 
time, intelligence became so general as to demand organic 
representation in the government. The autocratic despot 
must call in counselors, amongst whom wisdom might be 
found. Here is the embryo of a parliament — the entering in 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 109 

of the Legislative department. But force was not to be dis- 
placed without a struggle; nor would it give up even a share 
of its domain willingly. Europe has been the arena of strife 
for centuries between these two elements of government — be- 
tween kings and congresses, princes and parliaments, power 
and policy. The issue has been settled in England and 
France, and it is only a question of time in the rest of Europe, 
including Russia. There is no Legislative body in the latter, 
to be sure, nor any in sight, but the czar can say ' ' I am the 
State" in no more absolute sense than could Louis the 
Bourbon only two centuries ago. 

But as civilization advances, men will rise up who will not 
give their allegiance to a government unless it is just. As 
public intelligence when it becomes general demands organic 
representation, so public virtue, public conscience, at last 
demands organic representation in the government. It de- 
mands a separate and independent department, which shall 
inquire into and determine what is right. Here comes in 
the Judicial, which is the last department in the historical 
development of society, and its evolution is far from complete 
even in our most advanced civilization. Courts constantly 
disappoint the very moral sentiment which created them by 
their slavish dependence upon the Legislature. They more 
often seek to determine what is legal than what is just — to 
serve the letter by manipulating technicalities, than the 
spirit by the application of moral principles. This is not 
because the courts are below the average moral level of the 
community, but because this newest department, the Judi- 
cial, still regards itself as an adjunct of the Legislative 
department, whose chief function it is to interpret the will of 
the Legislature as expressed in the law. So parliaments 
regarded themselves a little while ago. They were sum- 
moned or dismissed at the will of the king, and supposed 
themselves bound to do his bidding. That notion is practi- 
cally exploded now. When we say that the military in our 
country is subordinate to the civil power, we mean that with 
us the old controversy between kings and parliaments has 
been settled against the king, or his representative, whatever 
he may be called. This can only hold, however, where the 



no WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

people have outgrown the dominance of physical appetite 
and brute passion. If in any community these spring up 
and override reason and justice, the only remedy is to pro- 
claim "martial law;" that is, revert temporarily to a 
primitive order of things, and supplant the other elements 
of government by force. 

Our point here is that the highest and dominant element 
in fully-developed society will be the moral, and that the 
Judicial department of government shall at last be supreme, 
because it represents the moral man, as the Legislative repre- 
sents the intellectual, and the Executive the physical. 
These three elements are not co-ordinate in dignity and 
importance, as is generally supposed, but, as a matter of 
fact, they have had a long historic struggle for mastery and 
precedence, with a constant tendency to relegate the Execu- 
tive to an inferior position. At first he was sole and 
absolute possessor of society. Then he became limited, 
very slightly at first, by the appearance of the Legislative 
body. Finally he became subject to and dependent upon 
that body, as in England; and now, as among us, he is 
stripped of royal title, hereditary claim, and other historic 
prerogatives. He is simply the High Constable of the 
nation, the Chief of the National Police, the Army and 
Navy. If we look at social evolution in the broad domain 
of international affairs, we see the same tendency to exalt 
the moral over the physical and intellectual as .a social 
factor. At first there is but one method of settling inter- 
national disputes — war, an appeal to force. Only a few 
hundred years ago did diplomacy come to be recognized as 
an adequate and honorable means of settling such quarrels. 
Only in the last few generations has it been looked upon as 
the ordinary and matter-of-course means, and war as a last 
resort. But diplomacy is but the transfer of international 
struggles from the physical to the intellectual arena. 
Diplomacy is hardly more moral than war. It is less brutal 
and barbarous, because it is the arena of the intellectual 
rather than the physical gladiator. Yet the moral senti- 
ment of the world demands something better than diplomacy, 
with its evasions and duplicities, its cunning and conceal- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. in 

ments; and already arbitration has made its appearance to 
meet the demand of that moral sentiment. Arbitration 
seeks not what is possible to superior force, as does war; 
not what is possible to superior cunning, as does diplomacy; 
but what is right and just between nation and nation. It 
has not only come to stay, but to rule at last. The Behring 
Sea matter is a case in point. 

By every test therefore applicable to individual, national, 
or international evolution, the moral element is destined to 
be the supreme and dominant one when social evolution is 
complete, and if Christianity does not give morality this 
supreme place, then it cannot be the final solution of social 
problems. But it is remarkable that while as yet ethics was 
hardly taken into account by philosophy and formed no 
part of " natural religion," the Founder of the Church made 
this stone, so long rejected of all builders, the very " head 
of the corner. ' ' ' * Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and 
His righteousness," is the command to His Disciples, and 
He admonishes them that this righteousness must exceed 
that of the religious teachers of their day, else they were 
unfit for membership in that kingdom. Christianity claims 
for itself the chief place in the world's final social state — ; 
the kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdom of 
Christ. It shall be so because of its righteousness. His 
claim to sovereignty is based upon the fact that His sceptre is 
a sceptre of righteousness; and the new heaven and earth 
over which it shall be swayed shall be the dwelling-place of 
righteousness. Christianity offers a perfect system and a 
perfect example of ethics, such as would solve all the l< prob- 
lems of the age," realizing peace on earth, good- will to men. 
Not only so, but it exalts ethics to the chief place — makes 
righteousness — not theological belief, nor ceremonies of wor- 
ship, but righteousness — the principal thing. 

We are now prepared to understand why Jesus and His 
Apostles were not, in the ordinary sense, reformers. Some 
of the mighty abuses of their day were slavery, polygamy 
and tyranny. They created no organizations for their 
immediate overthrow. They generated none of those social 
cyclones which we call reforms. They seem to the fanatic 



ii2 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

and hobbyist to have been compromising, non-committal, 
almost cowardly. Elijah sought to redeem Israel by a 
whirlwind of reform, and after the failure took refuge in the 
Mount of God, where he learned that the power to redeem 
is not the whirlwind of revolution, or even the earthquake of 
" popular upheaval," but the still, small voice of conscience. 
These more violent agencies are sometimes necessary to 
remove the obstacles in the way of social reform, but the 
real reforming force is the hidden, slow- working leaven of 
Christian ethics. All real reformation is transformation, 
and the only transforming factor known to history is Chris- 
tianity. Where it has spread and leavened society, the 
mighty abuses — tyranny, polygamy, slavery, idolatry — are 
obsolete or obsolescent. As the power of Christianity makes 
itself more and more felt, the public mind rests more and 
more in the belief of their ultimate extinction. 

It is significant that in this year of grace 1893, although 
the ' ' problems of the age' ' have been discussed by a series of 
World's Congresses such as the world never before saw, no 
immediate solution has been found for any one of them. 
Many reforms were advocated, but nothing more was done 
than the offering of palliatives for panaceas. But shall we 
sit down in despair with the motto, " What can't be cured 
must be endured?" A better and a truer motto is, What 
can't be cured must be outgrown. In the Christian philos- 
ophy going on to perfection is growing on to perfection. 
But growth is slow — in the eyes of reforming enthusiasts 
provokingly slow. As we have seen, a necessary factor in 
the perfect development of humanity is Christianity. This 
is the chief vital force which makes for growth. It must be 
allowed to have its perfect work. To supply the best con- 
ditions for its work is culture, and culture is the great work 
of the church. But after all means of culture are used — 
planting, watering, pruning — God must give the increase. 
Church and state combined can do nothing more than supply 
the conditions for rapid and healthy growth. Reformation 
may easily become deformation, legislation simply crippling 
ligation. But we would not discourage reforms, nor deny 
the necessity of legislation. Only let them be in wise and 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 113 

skillful hands, and let it be constantly kept in mind that 
they are after all only the external appliances by which the 
internal vital forces of society are assisted in their work; and 
that chief among these, and essential, as we have shown, to 
that perfection of humanity upon which the solution of the 
' ' problems of the age' ' depends, is Christianity. 




W. D. Owrn. 



THE CHURCH AND THE MASSES. 



W. D. OWEN. 



One of the charges against Socrates was that he cor- 
rupted the Athenian youth by teaching them a disrespect 
for the gods. But he did not teach them a disrespect for 
virtue, or truth, or religion, and he was the greatest bless- 
ing Athens ever had till Paul got to Mars Hill to tell the 
best of them that they were too superstitious. 

Athens was not suffering from infidelity, but from too 
much religion. Superstition is religion gone mad. Paul 
believed Christianity could give to this throne of the intel- 
lectual world a philosophy and a faith — and hence a salva- 
tion — it had never apprehended. 

Athens had not learned that the history of the race has 
been an inclined plane. Men have been going up all the 
time. The temple is at the top; the top is God's White 
City. 

Athens was the best that was left over from the era of 
the Wise Men. They flourished during the four hundred 
years that elapsed between the Old and the New Testament 
Scriptures — those white pages in the Bible where we write 
the marriages and births and deaths in the family. During 
this time God had no communication with earth so far as 
the record discloses. It was turned over to human reason 
to devise a system sufficient for the needs of human happi- 
ness; it was an era of the greatest intellects the world has 
produced. The period began when Socrates, with the cup 
of hemlock in his hand, bade the friends who visited him 
in the prison a final adieu, and said, " You return to your 
friends, but I go I know not whither; " and it ended when 



n8 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

the ripest philosophy of the world said, ' ' I,et us eat, drink 
and be merry, for to-morrow we die." 

Then it was God commenced again a record of the 
Scriptures, and Jesus was born, and the Apostles went every- 
where carrying the light that dispels darkness and lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world. Paul went to Mars 
Hill, where blazing intellect had made profoundest night, and 
declared to them the unknown God. Greece had revolted 
against her Wise Men and had built temples to the gods, 
and so had Rome; and every people .who have been led into 
doubt and despair by man's philosophy have driven a flock of 
sheep up the hill, and where they have lain down hav T e built 
an altar and constructed a worship. So the conclusion is 
not to be resisted, that if the world is not in harmony with 
the church it is because the church presents a religion so 
unnatural it cannot be accepted, or presents God so indiffer- 
ently and with so little of faith that the world cannot see 
its need of Him. 

No nation, or tribe, or age of the world has been 
utterly destitute of an order of men in some sense separated 
to sacred purposes. Humanity is not satisfied with a dis- 
penser of religious rites. Hume, the infidel, said, "Look 
out for a people entirely void of religion, and, if you find 
them at all, be assured they are but a few degrees removed 
from the brutes." It may be safely said that if every order 
of religious teaching were abolished to-day it would be soon 
restored in some form or other; and the very opponents 
would plead for the restoration, as they did in France. When 
the Reign of Terror was inaugurated, the populace crowned 
a debauchee the Goddess of Reason, proclaiming, "There 
is no God but Reason, and death is an eternal sleep." But 
in less than three years they came back to the same forum 
and proclaimed, "There is a God r and France will obey 
Him. ' ' The church has its foundations too deeply laid in the 
nature of man to long suffer an overthrow. 

The wretchedness it suppresses and the misery it prevents 
make the church so imperative a soul-sanative that it com- 
pels the world ultimately to plead for it, as the sick in a long 
night mourn for the morning to dawn. The sociologist may 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 119 

ponder with interest over the fact that just in the measure 
the church has power over men, are public iniquity and the 
people's wretchedness broken up. 

Men may crowd to hear Ingersoll's blasphemous jest, but 
he uttered the pain in his heart and the real sentiments of 
the masses when a friend, pointing to his infidel library, 
asked him what it cost, and he said, "the Governorship of 
Illinois." No well-known infidel can be elected President 
of the United States. The foundation upon which human- 
ity stands is revealed in every nation by the relations be- 
tween church and state. Even in America, where there is 
no legislative union of church and state, the weakness of 
the state is sustained by an unwritten alliance with the 
church. What made New England great and enabled her 
to dominate for a hundred years the literature, politics and 
policies of America ? Not wealth, or soil, or seaboard, for 
had not Virginia and South Carolina these in a surpassing 
degree ? It is because the church influenced the character 
of the people, preserved their virtue, modified their laws, 
elevated their literature, and gave direction to the current of 
their thought. And, while we sometimes flout at Plymouth 
Rock, the puritanism of New England is the seed from 
which the Republic sprang and is the glory of the nation. 

It is the greatness of the church that makes the 
largest offer ever made to man. Its offer goes farthest, ad- 
dresses more faculties, satisfies more aspirations, promises 
greater assistance. It touches every hour of the day and 
night, every step of existence, infancy, youth, maturity, 
age; and when the challenge comes to a final conflict, the 
Divine Voice rises above the din, " Lo, I am with you al- 
ways, even unto the end. ' ' 

If there is any such thing as the philosophy of history, 
its grandest fact is the influence of the Bible on the charac- 
ter of man. In that fact is the lustrum of our salvation and 
the source of our pre-eminence over the ancients, for their 
moral and material splendor was not inferior to ours. No 
man is competent to tell the story of the civil world who is 
unacquainted with the history of the Bible. All the ages 
were a procession of preparation for the Messianic advent. 



i2o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

The Saviour is the best friend the civil world ever had. In 
an age that was given over to the arts of war and the pur- 
suits of selfish ambition, He proclaimed that the true policy 
was peace and charity. For nearly two thousand years the 
nations, under His guiding hand, have been emerging from 
the teaching of Seneca and Epicurus, and the practices of 
Alexander and Caesar, to a clearer understanding of the 
advent proclamation, " Peace on earth, good will amongst 
men!" It has led the advance column of the world's civili- 
zation in every land. 

The primary influence of the Bible is its fund of historical 
fact. It holds a sceptre over all other books, because of the 
breadth of its information, its knowledge of the origin of 
man and the genesis of all things. It tells us what we 
desire to know and what could not be learned from any other 
quarter. Across the waste of forgotten centuries it comes 
to us bearing the burden of a great history, with all its 
pages signed by the hand of God. Without it the annals of 
our race would be lost in fable, and the movements of the 
ages would be an endless riddle. This book begins in 
the darkness of the world's morning, before the day had 
begun to dawn, and moves with the ever- widening stream 
of human existence for forty centuries down to the Cross, 
which becomes the interpreter of the past and the prophet 
of the future. 

History is called philosophy teaching by example. " It 
is wondrous in our eyes that the history of the world's 
creation, of man's existence in it, of God's providential 
dealings with man, of the church, and of the scheme 
of redemption, should be given to the world through the 
facts of history and the lives of men. Its stately precepts 
and sublime sentiments are all exemplified in the living 
actions of men. Think of a writer telling the tale of forty 
centuries before he introduced the chief character concerning 
whom alone he is writing!" But its moral sublimity and in- 
tellectual magnificence are apparent when we discover the 
web in which he has woven the history of the world, has 
every thread of its warp and woof running up to and con- 
necting with this central character. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 121 

It is in keeping with the originality of this book and its 
religious integrity that every part of its system should be 
united with historical facts. Its doctrines are facts, or 
deduced from facts; its precepts are founded on facts; its 
sentiments are all built on facts. It is a great system of 
fact, of reality, not of theory. The world will never reject 
Christ, for it will never invalidate its own history. The 
world has a conscience. 

The church has never pressed this historical side, this 
human manifestation, with much earnestness, for the world 
has been generous with its faith. But the world is less free 
with its faith than formerly, and in the coming century the 
church will need to disclose the human side of Christianity. 

Philosophy affects materialism, but is always racial, and 
will become the willing handmaid of the church when shown 
that religion, although conceived in heaven, was born on 
earth and has been nurtured and grown here. The soul is 
built on a plan — intuition, instinct, fear, hope, aspiration, 
death, all the attributes and appurtenances of the soul, find 
a complete adjustment in the Christian system, and nowhere 
else can a complete adjustment be found. This makes it so 
natural that philosophy will become its advocate, and so 
human that it will be accepted as necessary. 

One of the reasons of the power of the Catholic Church 
is that wherever the communicant turns in his home he sees 
the Virgin, the infant, the crucifix; he hears his church 
bells at sunrise, at noon and at vespers. The church, the 
church always, and everywhere the church. The Israelite 
in every direction beheld his God. Jehovah was the pres- 
ent power in their every national change. In Egypt or the 
wilderness, at Jericho, Jerusalem or Babylon, they saw His 
handwriting on the wall. So the church should see God on 
every hilltop of history and in every valley of human experi- 
ence. The eye and faith of Garfield proclaimed it when he 
said: " God reigns, and the government at Washington still 
lives." 

God is the most visible and persistent force in American 
life. When our hemisphere was to be peopled for a last ex- 
periment for a new government, God came over in the ' 'May- 



122 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

flower. ' ' It was a colony that had sacrificed everything for 
religion. Such seed was never planted for the growth of a 
nation before, and it has grown. God is visible in the 
American Constitution. It was not necessary to name Him. 
He was in the Civil War; He is in our institutions. He is 
so much in the people that even in this metropolis Sunday 
opening of the World's Fair is a confessed failure. When 
the church comprehends Paul's statement that "In Him 
we live and move and have our being, ' ' it will be established 
with power. The church must reach itself before it can 
hope to reach the masses. 

The masses are as individuals; attention cannot always 
be secured, and attention must be secured before action can 
be produced. The first obstacle religion has to encounter in 
dealing with man is neither total depravity nor infidelity — 
it is to get a hearing. Christianity requires a hearing. This 
brings it into competition with everything else that wants a 
hearing. One of its most determined rivals is the necessity 
of getting a living. Ninety per cent, of the human race 
have to labor each day for that day's bread. Much of the 
time the occupation is of uncertain tenure, and the toiler has 
to carry his own insurance by diligence and hard work. 
When it is all over, only one man in two hundred dies worth 
a thousand dollars, so that a living which cannot be put off 
until a more convenient season is a powerful competitor of 
religion. Then the race after wealth is a competitor, and 
all the pursuits of ambition are competitors. Luxurious 
homes, summer resorts,, the Sunday newspaper, easy chairs, 
good horses and carriages, all become competitors of the 
Sunday service, and the church must enter into a straight 
business competition with these to secure a share of the 
attention of man before it can hope for acceptance. 

The primary method of reaching the masses has been 
exemplified and directed in the Scriptures. God wrote to 
the world but once. The Scriptures never speak of Him 
writing to His people, but He commanded others to speak 
so that Israel might hear. Jehovah directed that Aaron 
should go with Moses, "for I know that he can speak 
well." It appears in the judgment of God that truth must 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 123 

be spoken and well spoken in order to have its proper effect. 
It is the great law of God's kingdom that it pleased God by 
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Re- 
ligion is co-existent with preaching. Where there has not 
been preaching, there has been no religion; and where 
preaching has been for a length of time, religion has existed 
also. The Gospel is an oral message. language is ad- 
dressed more to the ear than to the eye. 

The most powerful appeals ever made to the human 
conscience, or passion, or reason, were made with the glow- 
ing lips of the living speaker. Twenty thousand people 
gathered in the field at Leeds to hear Whitfield. Hume 
heard him in admiration. He brought the infidel Chester- 
field to his feet with outstretched arms to rescue the wan- 
derer from the fold of God, whom the preacher reported in 
the act of falling over the precipice. We read his sermons, 
but the preacher is not there. The glance of the eye that 
hushed thousands in his audience to silence is not there. 
The tone, at a single intonation of which a whole audience 
has been known to burst into tears, is not there. Like the 
deliveries of Henry Clay that so stirred the United States 
Senate, Whitfield's sermons in print nowhere attract atten- 
tion. The church's profound minds may put their dis- 
quisitions and doctrinal statements on paper, but she will 
only reach the masses by the spoken word. A printed 
gospel will never convert the world. All the inventions of 
the age will never discover a new gospel, but they will surely 
reveal new methods of enforcing the old story. Our arts, 
our science, our modern improvements, will produce adapta- 
tions and presentations never dreamed of before. Each age 
is just as wise as its own improvements. But the essential 
power of the pulpit is a Divine sacrifice for sin. This can 
never change. It is only the habits of the orators that 
change. An educated ministry is desirable, but a church 
with a ministry ripe in the power of illustrating and en- 
forcing the Gospel, although not ripe in the higher culture, 
will be a force measureless in evangelizing value above a 
church crowded with benches of bishops of the regulation 
kind. The church is fond of her educated men, and gives 



124 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

them the chief seats in the synagogue. But they are not 
the preachers most sought after; what the world wants is a 
single-hearted man who is a lucid talker. 

One of the trials of the ministry is the aristocracy of the 
pulpit — the recognized and the unrecognized men. A 
specially gifted and highly cultivated preacher requires an 
extra installment of Divine grace to enable him to tolerate 
his less favored brethren. The weaker brother needs ad- 
ditional grace to bring him to stand with confidence on the 
great truth, that man by wisdom does not find out God, 
and that the knowledge of God is wisdom above all learning. 

When John Bmryan preached in London he attracted a 
greater hearing than the most learned divines. No building 
was large enough to hold his audiences. When Charles II. 
jested Dr. Owen for going to hear a tinker preacher, Owen 
replied, " Had I the tinker's abilities, please your Majesty, 
I would most gladly relinquish my learning. ' ' Profound dis- 
cussions seldom satisfy the popular heart. They lack the el- 
ement of throbbing anxiety. They are not full of light and 
power. The unction of Divine solicitude is not there. They 
lose sight of the fact that the end of the sermon is the salva- 
tion of the people. The speaker is not so absorbed in the 
one purpose that his hearers perceive the object at which he 
aims. The masterly sermon that does not quicken convic- 
tion and intensify spiritual desires like a fruitless tree also 
shall wither. 

The church's messenger should prepare his message as 
faithfully as Everett, or Emerson, as Tennyson or Browning. 
He should be fully up in his part as a Booth or Irving. He 
should make it interesting and a delight as fully as Ingersoll 
or Ingalls. When the Lord decided that men should be 
saved by the foolishness of preaching, He provided that the 
ordinary way of reaching the masses should be by public 
speaking. He put the Divine message in the keeping of the 
highest and noblest of human arts, and all in every age that 
is associated with that art goes with its effective exercise of 
necessity. 

Jesus Himself gave the message by spoken delivery. If 
He had given it as some preachers give the message, the 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 125 

agents of the sanhedrim would not have brought back the 
report, ' ' Never man spake like this man. ' ' He gave it as no 
man ever gave a message before; every fibre of His being 
was surcharged with human sympathy, every word He ut- 
tered came down from heaven with Him, and it was to take 
His own life to make good that word. The world would go 
to helpless ruin and His mission to disaster if He and His 
words were not accepted. He spoke, and speech from such 
an one must move the world. He was the words He uttered, 
and He stands the world's unchallenged orator. 

When Paul resolved to know nothing but Christ, he put 
himself into the next place. What this particular force is 
we cannot ever satisfactorily analyze; its subtle essence defies 
detection. It is a something issuing from the speaker that 
pervades the audience and influences it. The speaker's very 
presence carries singular power. This much we know, it is 
a soul bathed in the Divine atmosphere. He has climbed to 
an altitude where he feels and sees things from the stand- 
point of God, and touches the earth only in the depth of his 
human sympathy. It is the realization of the Apostle, a life 
hid with Christ in God. 

The peculiar st3 T le of the utterance is not the power. 
Chr}-sostom had it with his torrent of eloquence. Luther 
had it with his dauntless denunciation of Rome. Wesley 
had it with his plaintive pleadings for prayer and piety. 
Campbell had it with his gestureless and stately arguments 
for obedience to the word of God alone. It is not in the 
manner — it is in the man. He is the messenger, and bears 
the message with the agony of a Gethsemane that sweats 
drops of blood in fear it may be rejected. This is what God 
meant when He ordained preaching to save the world. The 
soul is so charged with the Divine thought that the very 
words uttered are marked with Biblical .style — the very face 
and form of the messenger undergo a change and become 
his spiritual ideas materialized. Hence we say of a man's 
face, " He looks like a preacher. " A man cannot live with 
Christ without taking on Christ, any more than one can live 
with Lord Macauley and not take on loftiness of expression. 



126 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

When Moses came down out of the mountain, association 
with God had made his face radiant and beautiful. 

The difference in the effectiveness of preaching is not so 
much in the talent of gifts, as in having Christ the meat and 
drink. Did you ever read in his memoirs Mr. Campbell's 
few published letters to his family ? How they are like one 
of the epistles to the churches; and then the diary of his 
closing days, as kept by his daughter. How he quotes the 
Scriptures, and speaks of God and the Saviour and his con- 
fident hope! You say, this was a man of God. A soul like 
his in any age will turn multitudes to God. Twelve men 
once filled all Asia and the south of Europe with the plea. 
A thousand men like these could move the world. 

It is one of the theories that, when a preacher is conse- 
crated, all the material in him is put at the service of God, 
but God much of the time gets so little out of the material 
that the consecration appears like a quit-claim deed to a piece 
of abandoned territory. When God gets out of a man all 
that can be made out of the material that is in him, He gets 
enough to make an apostle or a priest forever. It is not the 
consecration — that is of the same relative value as a frame to 
a picture; it is where he lives, and moves, and breathes within 
the consecration. Consecration is not dedication. Christ 
had it when He said, " Wist you not. I must be about my 
father' s business. ' ' ■ 

Listen to the average pulpit for a quarter of an hour 
marshalling generalities on nothingness; but when the speaker 
stops to interpret some passage of the Scriptures the audi- 
ence is attention. He is about the Master's business. But 
this over, as soon as they see he is in the general field again, 
attention relapses. An audience has the spirit of divination. 
It knows when a plea to come to Christ issues from a heart 
weeping as the Saviour over Jerusalem; the audience knows 
whether the speaker means it or not. Our fathers in the 
Reformation were in the main not learned men, but they 
moved up close to God and were taught of Him. T^eir 
meetings were God's schoolhouses, and their pleadings with 
the sinner were as the cry that came down from Calvary. 
They moved the world, for they had the earnestness of faith 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 127 

and the enthusiasm that goes with such sacrifice as most of 
them were making. 

Christianity is an enthusiasm. It is many other things, 
but Christianity is an enthusiasm. When the glow is gone, 
that which remains is a body without a soul. Christ has 
been called an enthusiast. Only enthusiasm enables a man 
to surrender himself to a work so that the man and the work 
are one. Enthusiasm is the coloring to art, the driving 
wheel to determination. Enthusiasm makes singleness of 
purpose. It brought Christ from glory to live on the earth 
without where to lay His head. It animated Him for a life- 
time; it bore the cross, ^suffered the agony, endured the 
death. With the serenity of the rising sun that cannot be 
stayed, with the eternal calm of a changeless purpose, He 
moved the simplest, the least demonstrative, of the masses 
that followed in His footsteps. The great set current of His 
life carried everything before it. The reason religious refor- 
mations gather so many thousands into their fold is not so 
much the Divine correctness of their plea, as the infection of 
a holy zeal. 

Interest is infectious. Create an interest, and you have 
organized a contagion. Once have an interest, and the peo- 
ple do the rest. If the audience is interested to-day, it re- 
turns at the next service in increased proportions. An audi- 
ence never falls off so long as the interest keeps up. The 
antics of a mountebank may rush in a crow T d. That is a sen- 
sation, not interest, and, by the laws of our being, sensations 
are transitory. Because a speaker is able, he is not necessa- 
rily heard gladly. When the historian Froude lectured in 
Steinway Hall, a crowded and cultivated audience assembled 
to hear him. In forty minutes half the audience had retired. 
The other half remained in order to preserve the semblance 
of American courtesy to a distinguished foreigner. The lec- 
ture was able, profound, but it was a congealed intelligence. 
An audience soon leaves a speaker when he has no arterial cir- 
culation. A sermon without the warm blood of the Father's 
love coursing through it will never make springtime in a hu- 
man heart. 

After Mr. Moody returned from his first European trip, 



128 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. ■ 

lie attended a convention at Jacksonville, Illinois, where the 
celebrated Dr. Francis Iy. Patton preached the morning ser- 
mon, Mr. Moody occupying the afternoon. After Patton' s 
discourse, everybody in the audience said, ' ( He has a great 
mind. ' ' After Moody ' s, the vast audience slowly stole away. 
Dr. Eccles got at the situation when he said, ' ' When Mr. 
Patton was through, everybody said, * Great, great. ' When 
Mr. Moody was through, every head was down and every 
heart said, ' God be merciful to me, a sinner.' " Great ser- 
mons, like barbecues, may be served occasionally, not be- 
cause they are needed, but because it makes us feel better to 
once in a while have a big time. Great preaching does not 
reach the people, but the reaching after greatness makes the 
sermon a pretense, and often wrecks a good man's usefulness. 

A great sermon gives a comprehensive thought; but the 
general and comprehensive awaken admiration, seldom con- 
viction. Great multitudes do not follow connected dis- 
courses. Jesus knew how to deal with great multitudes. 
"And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, 
and he spake many things unto them in parables. ' ' Crowds 
must be caught by points, rather than by argument. In 
speaking to crowds, Jesus spake many things. That is one 
of the great laws of successful speaking. You rarely see a suc- 
cessful evangelist that is not criticized as a disconnected 
speaker, yet the many things are all about one thing, the 
subject never changes. There is unity in the variety — the 
subject is the Kingdom of Heaven. 

It is good to levy tribute on every quarter of the globe 
for God. It is the spirit of the Nineteenth Psalm. As Jesus 
passed through the land, He laid tribute for illustration and 
argument on everything — from the lilies of the field to Solo- 
mon' s glory, from fishermen and nets to the sun and moon 
and stars — to point His teaching. This is one way to make 
the heavens declare the glory of God, and all nature to tes-, 
tify for Him. That will be a glorious church that will lay 
tribute on every author, object and event for God. This 
making the world realize that ' 'the earth is the Lord' s and the 
fullness thereof ' throws the halo of God over all things, and 
he who comes to see that God is in all things is fitted, like 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 129 

Moses in devotion and Aaron in speech, to speak for God. 
Thomas Chalmers believed that there is no population so 
degraded but that it will maintain Christian institutions if once 
set on foot in their midst. It may be said Chalmers fairly real- 
ized on his audacious confidence in humanity. I heard Joseph 
Cook tell that he had visited the room in Edinburgh where 
Burke and Horn committed fourteen murders, that they 
might obtain human skins to sell to physicians for medical 
purposes. Across the street from this chamber of horrors 
there was an old tan-loft, in the midst of a population one- 
fourth on the poor roll, and one-fourth suffering from unre- 
portable vices. Chalmers selected this quarter to test his 
plan of reaching the masses. He was equipped with every- 
thing we have noted; all that remained was to get a hearing 
for the message. This West Port division of Edinburgh, 
with a population of 2,000, was divided into twenty sub-dis- 
tricts, each with a lady or gentleman as a visitor. The 
visitors went once each week into every home. Sometimes 
they left money, sometimes food, but always an invitation to 
come to the church and Sunday-school in the tan-loft. The 
visitors went into the houses, and sat down, and became ac- 
quainted. All were taught that the3^ must do something to 
help the church and school along. The chord of self-respect 
was touched. This was an important feature of the plan. 
The enterprise of founding a self-supporting church at the 
Five Points of Edinburgh was in five } T ears so successful that 
out of 132 communicants more than 100 were from the pop- 
ulation of West Port. Not a child of suitable age in the dis- 
trict but got into the school. A savings bank was started, 
a washing house opened, and an industrial school main- 
tained, and the entire expense borne by West Port; and 
that improved section of paupers at the end of five years had 
a surplus of ^70, which they contributed to the heathen out- 
side of their own borders. Chalmers is dead, but when Jo- 
seph Cook visited the church a few j r ears since, he saw the 
names of fifty members posted on the church door, with the 
numbers of the districts they were severalty to visit that } T ear. 
The Chalmerian idea was a systematic weekly visitation by 
members of the church from house to house, and self-support- 



i 3 o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

ing religious institutions amongst the affluent and needy and 
degraded alike. 

The church at Toledo, Ohio, conferred on the work in 
that county, and, dismissing neighborhoods of members for 
the nucleus of labor, began visitation and evangelization, 
and in five years the membership rose from 1,100 to 3,000. 
Twenty years ago the church at Indianapolis began dismiss- 
ing communities of members remote in the city as church 
seed; to-day we have every quarter of that city pulsating 
with nourishing congregations. 

Five years ago the church at Washington, well housed, 
but with a lingering debt, organized a mission Sunday-school 
near the navy-yard. It was a crowd, dirty faced, motley, 
noisy. In two years there were 200 bright-faced, neatly 
dressed orderly children. A lot was purchased, a building 
erected, and now a congregation of 400 members daily by 
their energy and activity provoke the mother church to good 
works. 

The West Port plan, the Toledo plan, the Indianapolis 
plan, the Washington plan succeed and make the masses 
respectable, honest Christians. It is within the purview of 
the commission: "Go preach." The sinner is nowhere 
commanded to go to church. The church is commanded to 
go to the sinner. The Master furnishes the Gospel, He 
leaves the heart and brain of the church to provide method. 
Go, and be as versatile as opportunity offers. Go clothed 
with the Gospel and directed by a sound discretion. 

Our chief lack in reaching the masses is organized push. 
The church extension fund is the wisest procedure we have 
inaugurated in a generation. 




E. V. Z0U,ARS. 



A CREED THAT NEEDS NO REVISION. 



E. V. ZOIXARS. 

The problem of man's highest good involves the three 
great factors of human character, human condition, and 
human destiny. Whatever determines all or any of these 
must necessarily arrest the thought and hold the attention 
of men. To develop the noblest human character, to pro- 
cure the best human conditions, to secure the highest human 
destiny, are the problems that call forth the efforts of the 
philanthropist, the statesman, and the theologian. The 
highest possible results in these directions must of necessity 
constitute the supreme good of man. 

It is a truth evolved from human experience that the 
best results in human character and conduct are secured 
through the operation of internal forces and principles. 
The fountain of highest good and purest happiness lies 
within the soul. In harmony with this are the words of 
Solomon, " Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it 
are the issues of life. ' ' And the great Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles declared that ' ' With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness." It follows therefore that the question of 
creed is one of supreme importance, inasmuch as this is the 
mainspring of human action and the dominating force in 
human life. 

It is not our purpose to discuss this question in its broad- 
est sense, embracing as it does all possible shades of belief 
on all possible subjects, much of which is purely speculative 
and inert, exerting no influence on character or life. We 
hold, however, that there is an all-embracing, dominant 
creed that needs no revision, under the influence of which 



134 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

the best human conditions are realized, the highest charac- 
ter developed, and the happiest destiny secured. 

I. In order to facilitate our search for this vital, essen- 
tial creed, we will inquire first what its characteristics must 
necessarily be. 

Inasmuch as we are seeking for the creed which will 
determine the highest good of mankind as a whole, and not 
merely the good of individuals or classes, we argue that, 

(i.) It must possess universality. A class creed is not 
the creed that we are seeking. There are certain doctrines 
that seem to have peculiar charms for certain individuals or 
classes, and that consequently do, within a certain radius, ex- 
ercise marked power; but these same thoughts, so powerful 
within certain limits, are apparently powerless in certain 
other circles. Some forms of truth attract the philosophic 
mind, others impress powerfully the imaginative mind, 
others dominate the practical mind; but the truth which we 
are seeking must appeal to the universal heart. No class 
jnan is the ideal man socially, politically, or religiously; no 
class party is the party of real patriotism ; no class church 
is the church of God; no class creed holds in keeping the 
highest good of man. Profound students of history have 
pointed out the fact that the great races and nations have 
been made by some powerful dominant thought. It has 
been shown that Rome was made by the thought of power 
or government, and that she consequently became the great 
civil lawgiver among the nations; that Greece was made by 
the thought of perfection or wisdom, and that consequently 
she has given us a wonderful philosophy, language, and 
art; that Israel was made by a religious idea or thought, 
"one true and living God," and that consequently from 
this source three great religions have sprung; that the Anglo- 
Saxon race has had in keeping the thought of freedom, and 
that consequently this people have given to men the consti- 
tutions and charters of civil and religious liberty. The 
creed we are seeking must not be the one or other of these 
thoughts, nor must it be the thought of any single race or 
nation; and yet, in so far as these ideas are true and neces- 
sary to the highest good of man, it must embrace them all. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES 135 

It must be universal in its adaptability to the universal 
heart, and it must comprehend the dominant thoughts out 
of which happiest conditions spring. 

(2.) It must be simple. It must come down to the level 
of the humblest mind. There is a common level of human 
comprehension and understanding on which the entire race 
may gather. Then, too, there are elevated plains and lofty 
mountains unvisited except by the favored few who are en- 
abled to mount upward in thought as upon the wings of 
eagles. The creed which needs no revision must come down 
to the common intellectual plane of the race. The fruit that 
we are seeking must grow on the lower boughs of God's 
great tree of blessing, within the reach of the hand of a child. 

(3.) It must be profound. It must satisfy the most 
grasping and comprehensive mind. It must feed the deep- 
est intellectual and spiritual hunger, and quench the keen- 
est intellectual and spiritual thirst. If it fail here it will 
lose its hold upon the thought of the world. No intel- 
lect, however gigantic, must ever pass beyond it, or its mis- 
sion for that man is ended before his highest possibilities 
are reached. 

(4.) It must have vitality. It must be a living, growing 
reality, meeting man at every point of his upward progress 
with satisfying power. It must never grow insipid or taste- 
less, but on the contrary it must alwaj^s answer the intellec- 
tual and spiritual appetite w T ith keenest zest. To do this it 
must be capable of as much expansion as is the soul of 
man. It must be a vital germ, which, when planted in the 
soil of the heart, will develop into a great tree, occupying 
the whole space and yielding the entire fruitage of life. 

(5.) It must be life-giving and practical. Its mission is 
to quicken the latent powers of the soul and call forth the 
best there is in man .physically, intellectually, and spiritu- 
ally. It must be potent to start man on the road to highest 
possibilities, and lead him onward to their achievement. In 
short, it must thrill the soul, touch the heart, win the affec- 
tions and hold them in its all-powerful embrace. No mere 
speculation can do this. No purely intellectual dogma can 
profoundly and lastingly rule the individual. To accom- 



136 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

plish such result the emotions must be reached and the af- 
fections enlisted. The creed that needs no revision must of 
necessity possess this power. 

(6.) It must serve as a sufficient bond of fellowship be- 
tween all Christian hearts. An unprejudiced study of the 
great religious denominations will reveal to the candid mind 
that each great body has a characteristic differentiating 
truth. Each great religious leader has laid hold of some 
great truth with more or less clearness, and around this the 
religious sect or party has crystallized. IyUther grasped the 
thought that God's Word was the people's book and the 
supreme authority in religon; Calvin grasped the idea of 
the Divine sovereignty; Arminius, the idea of the freedom 
of the human will and individual responsibility; Wesley, the 
idea of spiritual religion; the Campbells, the idea of the 
union of the people of God on the basis of simple Apostolic 
Christianity. A superficial view might lead to the conclu- 
sion that each religious party has crystallized about a num- 
ber of peculiar tenets, but a closer study will reveal the fact 
that there is generally one great central truth, and that out 
of this secondary or subordinate truths have sprung; al- 
though sometimes the subordinate truth has been so em- 
phasized as to obscure the great central thought. In order, 
therefore, to clearly understand a religious people, it is neces- 
sary to grasp clearly the one characteristic truth that gives 
meaning and significance to every other item, and by which 
its adherents have been separated from all other religious 
bodies. All differentiation, however, has not been caused by 
some peculiar truth. Sometimes error has been the cause 
of division, and just to the extent that this is true is fellow- 
ship hindered. Krror can never become the basis of uni- 
versal religious fellowship. Two things, therefore, are neces- 
sary in order to secure that perfect unity which is essential 
to our happiness and conducive to our largest growth. First, 
error must be eradicated; and second, the peculiar truth of 
each must become the common possession of all. The creed 
for which we are seeking must therefore be potent to dis- 
place erroneous ideas, or so dominate the thought as to neu- 
tralize their power; and it must be so large and comprehen- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 137 

sive that it embraces the great truth of each great religious 
body. Bach party must see that the acceptance of this 
creed involves the acceptance of its own vital and essential 
truth, and that it therefore constitutes a sufficient basis for 
the broadest and fullest Christian fellowship. 

(7.) It must furnish a model for imitation. Character 
is formed on the principle of imitation. Abstract rules and 
maxims of life can never result in the highest development. 
We can not imitate abstractions, nor can these hold the soul 
under its greatest strain. It therefore follows that laws, 
even though they be ever so perfect, can never save man in 
any high sense. Outside rules or regulations can never 
produce a perfect life. Herein was the weakness of Judaism. 
It worked from the outside merely. It was a system of ex- 
ternal checks and restraints, never intended as a final sys- 
tem for all men, but merely as a restraining influence on the 
life of one nation through which the promised seed was to 
come. Paul says, " It was added because of transgression 
until the seed should come." It was imperfect as a final 
system, for the reason that external precepts can never pro- 
duce the highest type of man. It could not give life. It 
furnished no perfect model for imitation, and inspired not 
the necessary love. Even the decalogue as a mere legal code 
must pass away. God Himself can not save the world by 
law written by pen or graven by chisel. Some method must 
be adopted that will write the laws on the heart, and there is 
only one thing that will accomplish this, and that is a life. 
It must be a person to call forth love. The creed for which 
we are seeking must therefore in its objective phase be a 
person, and not an abstract doctrine or a formulated code of 
laws and regulations. 

(8.) It must be an incarnation of God. If it be true that 
character is formed on the principle of imitation, it follows 
that a perfect character can only be formed by imitating a 
perfect model; and until perfection be reached it cannot be 
said that the highest possibilities are attained. It seems to 
me clear, therefore, that the highest human development logi- 
cally demands a Divine incarnation as its model, ridicule it 
who may. It is also true that the limitations of the human 



138 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

understanding demand an incarnation. We are so consti- 
tuted mentally that abstractions elude us. We reach the 
abstract and general through the concrete and particular. 
For example, love embodied in an act reveals itself more 
clearly to our comprehension than love discussed in the ab- 
stract. It therefore follows that a clear conception of the 
Divine attributes demands the incarnation of these attributes, 
by which means they are concretely presented to the human 
mind. • In this process a universal want is met. The desire 
to know God is natural and right. When Philip said, ' ' Iyord, 
show us the Father and it sufficeth us," he expressed a 
widespread, nay, may I not say a universal, desire. Admit- 
ting the existence of the Father, is it not a universal, sponta- 
neous cry, " Show us the Father and it sufficeth us" — suf- 
ficeth as an answer to our deepest desires and as a model for 
our imitation. To answer this cry has been the great pur- 
pose and effort of God. The climax of all revelation is the 
revelation of the Divine person, but, of necessity, it must be a 
matter of slow unfolding. The completest answer given 
concerning God during the Mosaic dispensation is mysteri- 
ous even in its completeness. When Moses was sent to de- 
liver his. people and asked on what authority he should just- 
ify his mission, he was told to say that " I am that I am " 
had sent him. Wonderful utterance! Who can grasp its 
mysterious meaning ? Complete, doubtless, and yet how in- 
complete as weighed in the scales of human desire and 
human comprehension ! Self-existence neither answers my 
longing nor comes within the radius of my understanding. 
Some fuller, simpler definition must be given, or my hungry 
soul will never be fed. The creed for which we are seeking 
must reveal God in a way to meet the soul's capacities and 
the soul's desires. 

(9.) It must be of such a nature that every man can 
readily and easily translate it into his own language with- 
out loss. There are certain forms of thought that are native 
to but one language. They belong to the tongue in which 
they are first expressed, and cannot be expressed in any other 
language without serious loss. This is characteristic to a 
greater or less extent of all purely philosophic truth. Bach 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 139 

great language has its own philosophy, and it cannot be fully 
comprehended until it is read in its own native language. 
To translate it into another tongue means to destroy in a 
measure its own peculiar charm and fragrance. The only 
form of truth that is largely independent of translation is a 
life. A bare, unvarnished statement of facts that reveals a 
life in all of its essential features is independent of the errors 
and limitations of translations. Truth in a life always and 
everywhere carries the same charm and breathes the same 
fragrance. It is something that every man can read and 
translate for himself. It therefore follows that the creed for 
which we are seeking will, when found, be in the form of a 
life, and not in the f orm of a philosophical statement of doc- 
trines. 

(10.) It must be a full and complete revelation of the 
glory of God. To behold God's glory is a great necessity, 
for not until this is revealed to the soul will the highest ideal 
appear. Moses on one occasion said, ' ' Lord, show me thy 
glory," and in this request he expressed the deepest neces- 
sity of the soul. It was equivalent to saying, " Lord, show 
me Thy crowning excellence, the highest, grandest, complet- 
est exhibition of Thyself. ' ' It meant ' ' Lord, show me Thine 
own ideal realized," for the realization of the Divine ideal 
must of necessity constitute the Divine glory. God's answer 
is wonderfully significant. He might have said, "Behold 
my power, for I am omnipotent; behold my wisdom, for I am 
omniscient; behold my riches, for I own all things." Power, 
wisdom, riches have constituted the chief glory of men. 
Their attainment has been the goal of human ambition. 
The answer that God gave is therefore the more striking 
and suggestive. "Behold," He said, "I will make my 
goodness to pass before thee. " God's glory, therefore, lies 
along the line of moral excellence. It is His goodness that 
gives to Him His crown of glory, and as this is concretely 
revealed to the soul, the highest possible ideal appears. 

(11.) It must be perfect, incapable of improvement as 
an objective reality. While it may, yea, must, grow and 
expand, as the soul grows in its powers to measure and com- 
prehend it, objectively it must be absolutely perfect. Every 



140 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

imperfect thing will sooner or later be revised. Ne plus 
ult?-a must be written on everything that claims exemption 
from revision. It follows therefore that the creed we are 
seeking has never been written by man, nor can it ever be. 
The best human conceptions of a perfect objective reality 
are necessarily imperfect. Perfection can never be born of 
imperfection, the infinite of the finite. So long as our 
creeds are but the formulations of our conceptions of truth, 
or of even a life, so long will our creeds be subject to revi- 
sion. We may formulate our ideas and declare them to be 
perfect, and for ages they may hold their place in the 
thought of the world. In defense of these ideas many 
theological battles may be fought. On account of reverence 
for that which is old, or by reason of the partisanship be- 
gotten by these fierce battles, these creeds may long be held 
as sacred, but finally the time comes when some one has the 
courage to say, "My conception is larger and better; the 
creed, venerable and sacred as it is, must be revised." - As 
long as men make creeds in this way, so long will this pro- 
cess be repeated, unless the human soul be fettered in its 
growth or its limitations reached. It therefore follows that 
all creeds that are but the formulations of human conceptions 
of Divine truth are fetters upon the growth of the soul 
and stumbling blocks in the road of religious progress. 
Consequently, the creed for which we are seeking is not 
some human conception of great truth, no matter how large 
and noble that conception may be. Neither the so-called 
Apostle's creed, nor the Athanasian creed, nor the Nicene 
creed, nor the five points of Calvinism, nor the counter 
points of Arminianism, nor the Westminister confession, 
nor any other formulated code expressing human concep- 
tions of Divine things, is the creed that needs no revision. 
These systems, no matter how much truth they may contain, 
have all the imperfections and limitations to which the hu- 
man mind is subject. If they must exist, let them be revised 
and enlarged in their expression, to keep pace with the en- 
larged conceptions of men resulting from the fuller light con- 
stantly being thrown upon the Divine truth, and the neces- 
sary growth of the human mind under the forces of education 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 141 

and culture and a constantly increasing Christian experience. 
II. Having decided upon some of the necessary charac- 
teristics of the creed that needs no revision, we next enquire, 
Where is the source to which we must of necessity look for 
such a creed? 

Enough has been said to show that we are necessarily 
cut off from all human sources. At once we turn to the 
source Divine and enquire, Has God given us a creed that 
needs no revision ? 

(1.) God has spoken to man in two great volumes — na- 
ture and revelation. Bearing in mind the necessary charac- 
teristics of this creed, we must see at a glance we cannot hope 
to find it in the book of nature. This book fails in at least two 
important particulars. It lacks first of all the necessary sim- 
plicity and clearness. Only a few favored ones are able to in- 
terpret its message to us, and even these do not always read 
it alike. One looks out on the material world and says, ' 'There 
is no God;" another looks up to the starry dome and piously 
exclaims, ' ' The heavens declare the glory of God, and the fir- 
mament showeth his handiwork." Its language needs to be 
interpreted, and here at once is introduced the human, and 
consequently fallible and imperfect, element. The poet is one 
who, living close to the heart of nature, is able to interpret 
it to us in its varied and changing moods; and yet each poet 
brings his own message, and succeeding ages will bring new 
poets with new messages to thrill the soul, and each in some 
sense will act as a reviser of those who went before. All this 
bears testimony to the truth so beautifully expressed by one 
of our country's bards, 

"To him who, in the love of nature, holds 
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 
A various language. " * * * 

All past experience shows, moreover, that che deepest 
questions of the soul Nature has never answered, and the 
profoundest longings of the heart she has never satisfied. 

The laboratory of the chemist has not been able to dis- 
cover the nature of the mystery of life; the microscope of the 
anatomist has not been able to discern the soul that dwells 
in this tenement of clay; the telescope of the astronomer has 



142 wdRLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

not been able to pierce the mist that hangs upon the end of 
life's pathway and reveal the land that lies beyond. Im- 
portant as has been the service that great souls have per- 
formed for the race in these material realms, to discover the 
invisible spiritual realities has not been their mission, nor can 
it ever be. 

( 2 . ) We next turn to the book of revelation as the only re- 
maining source of the creed for which we are seeking. Mark 
I say, " the source; " for I am not of the number who hold 
the Bible itself to be that creed. The necessary characteris- 
tics of this creed preclude such a possibility, but the Bible 
must of necessity be the source of the Divinely revealed creed. 
Every real student of the Bible must needs be impressed 
with the fact that there is a presence that fills this history, 
from the moment that sin entered the world, while yet man 
moved amidst the pristine beauties of his Edenic home, ever 
onward through all the wondrous unfolding and develop- 
ment, until the final consummation, when, amidst thunder- 
bursts of heavenly music and exultant shouts of adoring 
angels, the kingdom is delivered up to God the Father, that 
He may be all in all. This presence is foreshadowed in the 
curse pronounced upon the serpent tempter in the language, 
"It shall bruise thy head." The safety to be enjoyed in 
Him is prefigured in the ark, whereby eight souls were saved 
from the destruction that befell a doomed world. The uni- 
versal blessing to come through Him is embraced in the 
promise to faithful Abraham, in the words, "In thy seed 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ' ' Jacob pointed 
to His coming when he said, ' ' The scepter shall not depart 
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until 
Shiloh come. ' ' Moses announced His coming in the lan- 
guage, " A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto 
3^ou like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things." David 
described His triumphal entrance through the gates of the 
eternal city when he sang, ' ' Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, 
even be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of 
glory shall come in." Isaiah was thrilled with the majesty 
of His presence when he said, ' ' His name shall be called 
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 143 

Prince of Peace." Rejoicing in His complete sufficiency, he 
exclaimed, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters, and he that hath no money come buy and eat." 
Pointing to the coming beneficence, he said, " The isles shall 
wait for his law. ' ' Zechariah's patriotic soul was kindled with 
enthusiasm when he declared, "His dominion shall be 
from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. ' ' 
Daniel in far-distant Babylon looked down the ages and saw 
and declared the time of His supreme sacrifice. The Angel 
Gabriel thrilled the soul of the virgin mother when he said, 
' ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of 
the highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that Holy thing 
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. ' ' 
The Angelic Messengers announced His advent in the inspir- 
ing language, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great 
joy, which shall be to all people; for there is born unto you 
this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the 
Lord." The Angels in their Divine philanthropy celebrated 
His arrival in the eloquent song, ' ' Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace and good- will to men ! ' ' The Magi 
of the Bast acknowledged His presence by a long pilgrimage, 
bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The pious 
Simeon, when his eyes beheld the long-expected One, said, 
" Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, O Lord, * * 
* * for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." The stern, 
ascetic prophet of the wilderness acknowledged his own in- 
feriority when he said, " I have need to be baptized of thee, 
and comest thou to me ?" The spiritual John declared the 
wonderful Divine mystery in the language, * l In the begin- 
ning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the 
Word was God. * * * And the Word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us. ' ' Finally, in summing up the purpose of his 
Gospel, he said, ' ' Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the 
presence of his disciples, that are not written in this book; but 
these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and believing ye may have life in 
his name." He also declared the startling truth, " He that 
hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the son of God 
hath not life." Peter felt the impotency of all other helpers 



£44 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

when he said, " Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the 
words of eternal life. ' ' Paul grasped the fullness of the Divine 
manifestation when he declared, ' * I determined to know 
nothing among you but Jesus and him crucified." Jesus re- 
cognized His own superiority when, in asking baptism of 
John, He said, " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh 
us to fulfil all righteousness. ' ' He understood the human 
need and His own sufficiency when He said, " Without me 
ye can do nothing." " If any man thirst, let him come to 
me and drink." He recognized His own authority when 
He said, ' ' He that hath my commandments and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me." "All authority hath been 
given unto me in Heaven and on earth. ' ' He comprehended 
the scope of His mission when He said, ' ' Go into all the world 
and preach the Gospel to every creature. ' ' He announced the 
grandeur of His own personality and work in the language 
to John on Patmos, ' ' I am the root and offspring of David 
and the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the 
bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let 
him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him take of 
the water of life freely." Finally God Himself placed the 
seal of His own approval upon all these claims when, on 
the Mount of Transfiguration, He declared, " This is my 
beloved son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." 
Here then is the presence that fills the volume, the Divine 
personality that constitutes the Alpha and Omega of Divine 
revelation. Here is the creed that needs no revision, "for 
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. ' ' He 
could truthfully say, ' ' He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." It is not the Bible, but it is revealed in the Bible. 
It is not a philosophy, but a Divine personality. It is not a 
human conception, but a Divinely perfect revelation as em- 
bodied in a Divinely perfect life. 

III. This creed meets fully and completely all the con- 
ditions named. 

(i.) It has the element of universality, embodying the 
great thoughts that have made great races and nations. Does 
the Jew wish to see his own great truth in all of its fullness ? 
— let him listen to Matthew while he unfolds the national idea 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 145 

of ' ' one true and living God " as it shines in all its glorious 
perfection in Jesus the Messiah. When without prejudice 
he can listen to this witness as he points out the scores of 
prophecies rulfilled in this matchless life, he will be led to ex- 
claim, " This is the one of whom Moses in the law and the 
prophets did write. ' ' Does the Roman wish to behold his 
own national ideal of power and dominion ? — let him listen to 
Mark as he unfolds the life of the Almighty King and Con- 
queror, picturing His advent, His claim to dominion, His 
conflict with opposing powers, His suffering and sacrifice, by 
which all true dominion is won, and finally the King en- 
throned and the universal empire established. What could 
more powerfully impress the mind saturated by the Roman 
spirit than the life of Jesus as portrayed by Mark? Does the 
Greek wish to see his national thought of perfection vividly 
illustrated? — let him contemplate the picture given by Luke 
as he paints the Perfect Man in His advent, work, sacrifice 
for all men, and finally as the Saviour of all nations.* Does 
the liberty-loving Anglo-Saxon wish to discover the thought 
underlying all charters and constitutions of liberty? — let him 
study the teaching and life of Him who spake as never man 
spake, and acted as never man acted; who in word and 
deed declared the greatest thing on earth to be man, and that, 
too, intrinsically , and apart from the accidents of wealth, wis- 
dom, position, or power. Does the most spiritually minded 
man wish to behold the highest ideal of spiritual life? — let him 
contemplate the character portrayed by John in all of its 
spiritual perfection and lofty attainment of spiritual power. 
The world has had many great men — large- souled, large- 
hearted, philanthropic men — but it has had but one ab- 
solutely universal man, and that was Jesus of Nazareth. 
Every other man has had limitations upon him, either in 
thought, feeling or purpose; but Jesus is without limitation. 
His thought, sympathy, purpose, are as broad a 3 is hu- 
manity. 

(2.) It is very simple. The most gigantic intellect may 
fail to comprehend this person in all of His Divine complete- 
ness, but a child can accept Him and trust Him for salvation. 

*This analysis of Mark and Luke follows Gregory, as given by Butler. 



146 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Here the creed strikes the lowest level. It may require great 
intellectual acut^ness to believe in some dogmas, but to trust 
in a person comes within the radius of every man's power 
when the grounds of confidence are fully established. There- 
fore said Jesus, ' ' I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
prudent and revealed them unto babes." This is but to say 
that the faith that saves is not a matter of intellectual acute- 
ness, otherwise but few could be blessed by it, but a matter 
of childlike trustfulness; and here it touches the common in- 
tellectual plane of the race. 

(3 . ) It is very profound. If it reaches down to the low- 
est it reaches up to the highest. ' ' Hear ye him ' ' may be 
said to a Newton, a Kepler, a Franklin, or an Agassiz, as 
well as to a simple-minded child, and all will listen with pro- 
found respect, and uncover their heads in reverence, exclaim- 
ing " Surely, never man spake like this man !" 

(4.) It has wonderful vitality. It grows as the soul ex- 
pands. At every point of development this mighty person- 
ality meets the soul and satisfies its demands. There is 
never any sense of want or feeling of disappointment. Every 
great question of the heart is met with an answer so pro- 
found as to satisfy the most grasping intellect, and always 
the impression is left upon the mind that there is more be- 
yond. Well has He said, ' ' I will never leave thee nor for- 
sake thee." To the little child He says, " I am with thee," 
and He suits His words and actions to the needs of the child 
heart; to the philosopher He says, " I am with thee," and 
He enters and sups with him, affording the most satisfying 
fellowship and companionship. 

(5.) It is vitalizing and practical. It quickens the 
latent energies of the soul and thaws the natural coldness of 
the heart, as the vernal sun melts the ice and snows of winter, 
quickening every dormant germ into new life. It not only 
stimulates man to highest endeavor, but it goes before him 
and with ever-beckoning hand says, "Come tip higher." 
John, after he had followed its lead for many years, ex- 
claimed, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 147 

know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for 
we shall see him as he is." 

(6.) It serves as the necessary bond of fellowship be- 
tween all true believers. It embraces the great religious 
thought of all great Christian bodies. To accept the Divine 
Christ is to exalt God's word to the place of supreme au- 
thority and declare it to be the book of the people, for the 
book that reveals the Saviour of Man must of necessity be 
the supreme authority and the book of man. To accept the 
Christ is to exalt the idea of Divine sovereignty, for such a 
faith lays hold of Him who said, ' ' All authority in heaven 
and on earth is given unto me." To believe in Jesus is to 
magnify human responsibility, in that it accepts Him who 
said, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and 
he that believeth not shall be damned." ' ' Him that cometh 
to me I will in no way cast out." To believe in Jesus is to 
exalt spiritual religion, for it lays hold of Him who said, ' ' It 
is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the 
comforter will not come, but if I go away I will send him 
unto you." " I will pray the Father and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even 
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it 
seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for 
he dwelleth with you and shall be in you." To believe in 
Jesus is to lay hold of practical spiritual Christianity, rest- 
ing on the two great pillars of Divine power and human co- 
operation. To believe in Jesus is to magnify the idea of the 
union of the people of God, since it is a reliance on Him who 
said, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for all them also 
who shall believe on me through their word, that they all 
may be one." It is to accept the doctrine that all are one 
in God by virtue of faith in Christ, and hence brethren whom 
no barriers erected by man should divide. 

(7.) It furnishes a perfect model for imitation. It seeks 
to regulate life, not by abstract principles or outward ex- 
pressions of law, but by giving to man a perfect pattern for 
imitation. Paul realized the nature of this creed and its con- 
crete excellence when he said, "Be ye followers of me as I 
am of Christ." It begets the love out of which all true life 



148 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

and action must spring, by presenting to the heart of man 
1 'the chiefest among the ten thousands and the one altogether 
lovely," that He may win our affections, and thus mould us 
into the Divine image. In practical results it accomplishes 
all that is theoretically demanded of it. Under its magic in- 
fluence a man capable of profane blasphemy becomes a bold 
courageous Peter; a son of thunder, a loving, gentle John; a 
bitter persecutor, a heroic Paul. But should we fail to see 
a single instance of absolute perfection, at least let us remem- 
ber that " He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and 
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity 
of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a 
Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness 
of Christ." 

(8.) It is an incarnation, and in this it meets the con- 
stitutional demands of the soul. It is God manifest in the 
flesh, God on the plane of human life. Divine power, wis- 
dom, goodness, mercy and love are revealed in a Divinely 
powerful, wise, good, merciful, loving Being, that stands 
upon the human plane and declares, ' ' He that hath seen 
me hath seen the Father." How the hideous, distorted, 
unnatural, revolting views of God are dispelled as we see 
Him when He reveals Himself in the incarnation, which is 
the only revelation perfectly adapted to the capacities and 
powers of the soul! He who ridicules the incarnation shows 
himself to be profoundly ignorant of his own powers. He 
knows not what manner of man he is; but God, who made 
the soul, knows its capacities and limitations and adapts His 
revelation of Himself to the creature He has made. In this 
incarnation the desire to know God is fully satisfied. The 
definition given to Moses, so profound and yet so cold and 
disappointing, after ages of waiting is now completed in a 
way to gratify, yea, thrill, the heart. No longer is God 
content to say to man's inquiring soul, " I am that I am," 
but to the hungry He says, " I am bread;" to the thirsty, 
" I am water;" to the sick, " I am the great physician;" to 
those conscious of their need of care, ' ' I am the good shep- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 149 

herd;" to the lost, " I am the way;" to the homeless, " I am 
the door;" to the seeker after knowledge, " I am the truth;" 
to those living in fear of death, ' ' I am the resurrection and 
the life." 

(9.) It can be easily read by all men. Love has been 
called the universal language, and Jesus, the Son of God, is 
but the expression of God's love. 4 ' God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth on Him might not perish but have everlasting life." 
This vital, essential truth is the soil in which all the trees of 
heavenly planting grow. This love of God expressed in 
Jesus is the great central luminary from which all other 
orbs of truth borrow their light. This truth expressed in a 
life of loving action can be understood by all; and therefore 
it is said, " His life was the light of men." Herein lies the 
reason why Jesus did not write a book on ethics or promul- 
gate a philosophy of truth. In order to present the vital 
truth, out of which noblest character, best conditions, and 
highest destiny spring, in a way that all can grasp it and 
understand it, He simply embodied it in a life. Truth thus 
expressed is not at the mercy of the translator, nor is it cir- 
cumscribed by the limitations of any language. 

(10.) It completely reveals the glory of God, and in so 
doing places before man the highest possible ideal of life. 
God declared to Moses that His goodness was His glory, but 
as an abstraction this could not be comprehended by man. 
He therefore placed His goodness before us in the concrete. 
He embodied it in a person. Paul therefore says, "He 
(Christ) was the effulgence of his (the Father's) glory and 
the express image of his substance." He also says, " We, 
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the 
spirit of the Lord." This creed would correct all false 
standards of human greatness. It shows us that the high- 
est possible excellence is independent of any adventitious 
circumstance. It is reached by a gradual process — by pass- 
ing from glory to glory until the Divine ideal is realized in 
man. 

(11.) It is perfect. In this creed no imperfection has 



i 5 o WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

ever been discovered. The strongest light of criticism has 
revealed no flaw. It fills the soul and meets the highest ex- 
pectations. The most fertile imagination can suggest no 
improvement. Pilate declared, " I find no fault in him," 
and after eighteen centuries this verdict is re-affirmed by the 
wisest and best men. The risen I^ord, the living, loving 
Redeemer, the Divine Christ, is " the all in all;" He consti- 
tutes the all-sufficient portion of the soul. This is the 
rock Jesus referred to when He said, " On this rock I will 
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." Therefore, the all-embracing, all-sufficient 
question is, ' ' Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus 
is the Christ, the Sor> of the living God ? ' ' The confession 
of this truth is a declaration that the soul has laid hold 
upon Christ by faith, and when this is done, it has a creed 
that needs no revision. To accept this and all that it in- 
volves is to be built upon the foundation referred to by 
Paul in the language, " Other foundation can no man lay 
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
IV. The benefits resulting from such a creed. 

(i.) Its acceptance produces a feeling of restfulness 
and confidence. Every thing in the world around us with 
which we come in daily contact is subject to change. 
There is nothing that has in it the stable, enduring quality. 
The words ' ' passing away ' ' seem to be written upon all 
material things. Human life is made up of an unending 
round of changes. The widest extremes in condition are 
brought very close together. The lights and shades of life 
are wondrously and strangely blended. Amidst all this 
fluctuation and change the soul hungers for something 
that is fixed and enduring. It yearns for some stable, sure 
foundation upon which to build its hopes, some unchanging 
object on which to place its affections. This creed answers 
this deep yearning and fully meets this ardent desire. 
"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and forever" is 
the rock that endures amidst all the changing vicissitudes 
of time. In Him there is a safe harbor, a secure resting- 
place for the soul amidst the tempests of life. 

(2.) It will deprive infidelity of its most powerful 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 151 

weapon. The life of Christ is an unanswerable argument 
in favor of Christianity, yea, of the Bible itself. When 
Christ is seen to be the great central object in the Bible, 
and the true ideal of Christian life, all contentions about 
minor unimportant details will necessarily cease. When 
Christ is magnified and held up as ' ' the all in all, ' ' this 
one colossal figure will hold the attention of men. Then it 
will be seen that Christianity is not a philosophy, nor a sys- 
tem of doctrines, nor an evanescent sigh, nor a vapory 
tear, but a real life lived, word spoken and action done — a 
living reproduction of the Divine Christ in the lives of men. 
To this form of Christian argument there is no answer. 
Then trials for heresy will be impossible, because the real 
heresy, a false life, will be its own condemnation. 

(3.) It will make the modern pulpit Apostolic. In 
studying the Apostolic models of preaching, one cannot fail 
to be impressed with the entire absence of anything like 
speculative theology. The Apostles never dwelt on met- 
aphysical definitions or formal statements of what, in their 
judgment, constituted the essential points of Christian faith. 
The one essential item that was never omitted was a cruci- 
fied and risen Redeemer. Personal trust in a personal, liv- 
ing Christ was the one thing essential. If this faith event- 
uated in action it w T as living; if not, it was dead, and there 
the analysis ended. If a man preached Jesus he preached 
the faith. If he persecuted Jesus or his followers he de- 
stroyed the faith. If he obeyed Jesus, he was obedient to 
the faith; and if he forsook Jesus, he forsook the faith. To 
believe on Jesus and obe}^ Him was salvation; to disbelieve 
was damnation. Paul may have had theories concerning 
the Trinity, the incarnation, the atonement, inspiration, and 
many other intricate theological questions, but he never in- 
timated that belief in any of these theories constituted Chris- 
tian faith or any part of Christian faith. The Christian faith, 
objectively considered, was a crucified and risen Saviour. 
This creed never needed revision. It was the same in Ath- 
ens that it was in Philippi, the same in Rome as in Corinth. 
Subjectively, it was a personal trust in the risen, living 
Christ. When the Christian pulpit shall return from its 



152 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

metaphysical speculations concerning the unknown and un- 
fathomable mysteries connected with God and His wondrous 
system of salvation to the simplicity of the Gospel, the ser- 
mons will have the Pauline and Petrine ring, and Pentecostal 
results will be seen. Nay, these results are seen to-day in 
proportion to the fidelity with which preachers adhere to 
this simple creed. 

(4.) It will marry in divorceless union faith and action. 
It is very common to hear men say : "It makes no differ- 
ence what a man believes, if he only does right." This 
declaration is based on the assumption that there is no neces- 
sary relation between faith and life. If theological dogmas 
constitute the real essence of a true faith, this would seem to 
be in some measure true, for people professing to believe the 
most contrary doctrines are very similar in life. In actual 
practice the Calvinist and Arminian are one. Both pray to 
the same God, through the same mediator. Both preach the 
same gospel and demand the same obedience, and teach 
the same practical Christian duties. Both go to the very 
ends of the earth with the message of salvation, and pray as 
if all depended on God, and act as if all depended on man. 
Is it any wonder that some have said : "It makes no differ- 
ence what a man believes, if he only does right ?' ' But a 
closer scrutiny will reveal the fact that behind the tenets 
about which men dispute, there is a vital creed that rules 
the life in its larger aspects and grander currents that all 
possess in common. This creed is simply Christ in the heart, 
of which the words, ' ' I believe with all my heart that Jesus 
Christ is the Son of God," are the best verbal expression. 
This is the vital creed behind all true Christian life. 

(5.) It will destroy the necessity for all other creeds. 
One great object of creed-nlakers has been to embody in for- 
mulated doctrines the essential truths. They have sought 
to be comprehensive in their statements. The Bible has 
been culled, and its great doctrines have been laid hold upon 
according to the mental grasp and comprehension of the 
various theological teachers, and expressed with various 
degrees of vigor and clearness — oftentimes, however, in lan- 
guage utterly incomprehensible to the common mind. To 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. \^ 

reject any of these has seemed to their adherents to be a 
rejection of essential truth. Hence good men, in order to 
preserve the purity of the faith, have become religious 
polemics and heresy-hunters. This has been the seed fruit- 
ful of persecutions, and all the train of religious follies 
that have wasted the church and cursed the world. Here, 
too, is born the necessity for revised creeds and new formu- 
lations, in order to keep pace with the new views and en- 
larged conceptions of truth that necessarily come to the true 
student of God's word. There must be, there is, a better 
waj^. Some creed must be found so expansive, so all-em- 
bracing, so clearly formulated, that it will swallow up in its 
self not only the truths of all other creeds, but all new truth; 
and all larger conceptions that the future rmry have in keep- 
ing must be embraced in it. Such a creed was given to us 
by Jesus in His answer to Pilate, when He confessed Himself 
to be the Son of God, thus expressing the very essence of 
His personality. This Paul calls the good confession, and 
it constitutes the sum total of all Bible truth. To accept 
it means to accept Jesus in His threefold office of prophet, 
priest and king, wherein He meets man with deliverance at 
his three great points of weakness : as a prophet, to save 
man from his ignorance; as a priest, to save him from his sin; 
as a king, to rule his life and save him from death. Does 
the obj ector say it is not comprehensive ? Let him sit down 
and write until he has formulated every possible essential 
Christian truth according to his best conception. With 
prophetic vision let him look down the future and drag from 
its keeping the loftiest, deepest, grandest conceptions that 
will be born of the human mind; and when he is done, all 
and more will be embraced in the simple Divine formula, 
' ' I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of 
God," because it is an expression of faith in Him who said, 
" I am the truth." 

(6.) It will obliterate all artificial and arbitrary dis- 
tinctions that dishonor and degrade our common humanity, 
and it will bring about a practical recognition of the great 
truth that out of one blood God hath made all nations 
that dwell on the face of the earth. The oriental nations are 



T54 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

cursed by caste; the occidental nations by class distinctions. 
Kven in democratic America we hear much said about 
higher and lower orders of the people, and, unfortunately, 
these distinctions are based on the purely accidental circum- 
stances that attach to humanity. The inherent dignity and 
nobility of man as such are entirely lost sight of or ignored. 
There needs to be a great leveling process. These artificial 
barriers must needs be swept away, and this work, so neces- 
sary to the highest good of man, this creed that needs no 
revision is destined to accomplish. The carpenter of Naza- 
reth, in whose estimation a single humble soul was. worth 
more than all the world beside, is destined to lead this 
humanity up to the fullest recognition of the dignity and 
nobility of man as such, and to bring all men onto the plane 
of universal brotherhood. His leveling process is a lifting- 
process, that draws all men up to the sublime heights of 
moral grandeur on which He stands, and from which He 
reaches down to lift up a world. 

(7.) It will unite the children of God in the strong bond 
of universal Christian fellowship. Too long already the 
efforts of God's people have been paralyzed; the resources of 
the church wasted; the spiritual joys of believers marred by 
unseemly strife. Too long has spiritual intercourse between 
the people of God been hindered by unholy divisions. It is 
high time that the oneness of God's people — the condition 
upon which the conversion of the world is suspended — were 
realized. When the essential creed of Christendom shall be 
reduced to a simple personal trust in a Divine personal 
Saviour, this result, so much to be coveted, will be attained. 
Then the auspicious day for which Christ prayed and to 
which all generous Christian souls are looking will appear. 
Then the dominion of the King will spread ' ' from sea to sea 
and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. ' ' Then will as- 
cend the shout of victory that will be answered back by 
exultant angels: "Hallelujah, the Lord our God, the Al- 
mighty, reigneth !" The redeemed world will then rejoice 
in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 
The lion and the lamb will lie down together, and peace, like 
the mighty ocean, will hold all lands in its embrace. 




B. B. TYI.ER. 



THE PROMISE OF CHRISTIAN UNION IN THE 
SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



B. B. TYLER. 



We have listened with inexpressible pleasure during the 
several sessions of this congress to carefully prepared and 
faultlessly delivered addresses on themes of exalted worth. 
This is the last session of the Congress of Disciples in con- 
nection with the Parliament of Religions. My address has 
not, I regret to say, been carefully prepared, nor will its 
delivery be faultless. I am in your presence, beloved in the 
Lord, not for the purpose of delivering a great address, but 
only in a quiet, straightforward manner to talk a few 
minutes about "The Promise of Christian Union in the 
Signs of the Times." 

It was, I must be permitted to remark, a happy thought 
of the committee on program to place me in the position 
which I now occupy. I honestly think that, after spending 
so much time on the summit of the mountain, bathed in 
glorious light, we ought to come down, that we may be 
ready to begin work in our National Conventions to-morrow; 
and the committee has selected me to let you down, and I 
will see to it that you are down before the conclusion of my 
quiet little talk! 

I have somewhat against your chairman. He virtually 
announced in Hall XXVI of the Art Institute Building 
this morning that I am a crank ! It is true that he did not 
use that word — he knew better! He said, in announcing the 
address for this hour, that the speaker is a hobbyist! and 
that his principal hobby is the union of such as believe in 
Jesus to the saving of the soul. It is true, and I suppose I 



158 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

may as well in this presence confess the same, that I have a 
large stable filled with well-groomed steeds. I ride them in 
turn. But the horse that I most frequently mount, and on 
which I make the best time, is labelled "Christian Union." 
That is a fact. 

L,et us begin our conference this evening with a little 
attention to the following question: 

Why should Disciples of Christ feel an especial interest in 
the union of God's people? 

Why? For this reason: Our Blessed L,ord in His prayer 
of intercession, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the 
Gospel according to John, requested that those who might 
believe on Him as the Messiah, through the words of His 
elect ambassadors, might be one, as He and His Father are 
one, and this for the following reason: "That the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me." 

Thus it will be seen that the man of Nazareth, the Proph- 
et of Galilee, the Son of Mary, the Son of God, in the 
solemn hour in which He offered this prayer of intercession, 
placed the unity and union of believers as a condition prec- 
edent to the successful evangelization of the nations. In 
order that the world might believe that the Son of Mar}- 
was the Son of God, the Christ prayed that His Disciples 
might enjoy such a oneness as existed, as exists, between 
the Father and the Son. Let the words of the Divine Man 
stand out in bold relief — "that the world may believe that 
thou hast sent me. ' ' 

Why should we not then, as disciples of the Lord Jesus, 
with all earnestness give attention to the problem of union 
among evangelical believers, and labor to bring it to pass? 

I have been requested to speak about the promise of 
Christian union in certain signs of the times. 

In speaking on this subject, we usually place all possi- 
ble emphasis on the word union. I suggest a change. Place 
the emphasis on the word Christian. The present inquiry is 
not simply concerning union, but the inquiry relates to 
Christian union. What is the promise of Christian union 
in the signs of the times ? 

I might, of course, speak of the promise of denomina- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 159 

tional union, but I have not been requested to do so. You 
at once see that denominational union is not necessarily 
Christian union. 

I might also ask you to give attention to remarks on the 
promise of church union, as indicated in certain signs of 
our times, but I am under no obligation to speak of church 
union to-night. The theme on which I am to speak, the 
subject to which you are requested to give attention during 
this hour, is Christian union, the promise of Christian un- 
ion in certain signs of the times. 

Union on Christ, union in Christ, union around Christ, 
union under Christ — a union of which the Christ is the 
center and the circumference — a union in which the per- 
sonal Christ shall be all and in all — this and this alone is 
Christian union. And this kind of union, believe me, may 
be seen as rapidly approaching in not a few signs of the 
times. 

Brethren, will you excuse me if I suggest that in our 
study of this problem — the problem of such a union of the 
Lord's people as will hasten the evangelization of the world 
— that in our study of this problem and its discussion before 
the people, from the pulpit and the platform, and in the 
press, we ought to enlarge our vision not a little. This sug- 
gestion is made with a degree of timidity, and I trust in a 
becomingly modest spirit. 

In our discussions hitherto, very naturally, we have 
spoken of the union of those disciples of the Lord Jesus who 
are best known to us, and who are most alike in their relig- 
ious and theological thinking, speech and conduct. We 
have, for illustration, discussed very much the question of 
union among the different sections of the great Baptist fam- 
ily; then we have looked out upon a wider field, and have 
thought and spoken of union among those Christians who 
are called Protestants; and sometimes we may have reached 
an altitude from which, looking out, we have seen the Ang- 
lican Church — more particularly the portion of it which 
has been transferred to our American soil, and bears the 
name of Protestant Episcopal. 

But ought we not, in our consideration of this difficult 



160 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

and superlatively important problem, to embrace in our 
study all Christendom? Ought we not to take into consid- 
eration the entire Church of God ? Ought we not, in the 
consideration of this problem, permit me to ask, to embrace 
in our thought and speech the various conceptions of the 
Christian religion — ought we not to include the Greek con- 
ception, the Iyatin conception, the Anglican and the Ameri- 
can conceptions — ought we not to embrace all who receive 
as true, and from God, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth? 
The question as it presents itself to my mind is very much 
larger, broader and grander than we have been in the habit 
of considering it in our discussions. 

Now with the thought of Christian union as presented 
a few minutes ago — that is to say, union in Christ, under 
Christ, on Christ, in obedience to Christ; union with the 
Christ as the center and circumference, giving Him in 
all things the pre-eminence — with this thought as to the 
meaning of Christian union, let us look out on the broad 
field of Christendom and see if we can discover evidences of 
such a union approaching among those who profess and call 
themselves Christians. I am under no obligations to indi- 
cate the exact time of its consummation. The only ques- 
tion is: Are there indications that the unity and union of be- 
lievers in Christ for which the Master prayed approach- 
ing? 

An important and most significant sign of the times in 
this matter is seen in our great ecclesiastical convocations. 
The tendency of men in every department, especially in our 
land, is toward union. Not merely in religion are men 
massing themselves and forces, but in education, in com- 
merce, and in manufactures as well. Representatives of 
churches come together to plan for the extension of the 
Kingdom of God among men. They not only come together 
to plan, but to work. In this splendid city of Chicago, un- 
der the inspiration and magnetic leadership of Mr. Moody, 
men of various creeds, and belonging to different denomina- 
tions, have been brought together, and are now working 
with an Apostolic zeal, and in union, to persuade men that 
the Son of Mary is in fact the Son of God, the Saviour of 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 161 

men, and that they ought to believe in and obey Him. Is 
not this an encouraging fact ? And when Christian men and 
women assemble in their annual and other denominational 
convocations, how common a thing it is to send messages of 
fraternal greeting to other similar meetings which may be 
in session at the same time. 

A moment since the fact was mentioned that in secular 
affairs the tendency is toward a union of men and forces. 

The statement is made, I think, by Dr. Josiah Strong, in 
his recently published book, ' 'The New Era, ' ' that in the be- 
ginning of the railroad enterprise in this country, the line 
of road uniting Albany and Buffalo, in the state of New 
York, was owned by no less than sixteen different compa- 
nies. These companies, one by one, were merged, until 
now the great New York Central Railway Company con- 
trols not only that bit of road but thousands of miles of 
railway. And what is true of railroads is true of manufac- 
tures and commerce. Union is the word now. It is true in 
a larger sense than we are in the habit of considering, that 
"union is in the air." The tendency toward union is all 
about us — it is everywhere — and think you for a moment 
that Christian people in their especial enterprises are unaf- 
fected by it ? Impossible ! 

In this city of marvelous energy and unparalleled growth, 
we have a magnificent illustration of the tendency of men 
to come together for commercial reasons. They unite in 
carrying on magnificent enterprises — enterprises fraught 
with blessings to mankind. This tendency finds its highest 
expression in the peerless Columbian Exposition. 

But what we see to be true in the business world, among 
business men, for business ends, is true in the republic of 
letters, among men of learning, and for the highest attain- 
able literary results; and what all men must know to be true 
in the departments of commerce and letters is quite as true 
in the department of religion. The manifest tendency is 
toward union. This single fact ought to give encourage- 
ment to everyone who has hitherto failed to discover prom- 
ise of Christian union in the signs of the times. 



i6 2 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

How long has it been since a new denomination was or- 
ganized in this country ? 

Just twenty years ago, in New York City, the Reformed 
Episcopal Church was organized; nor has it been conspicu- 
ously prosperous. For what reason ? It was born out of 
due time! 

The time for organizing new religious denominations 
has gone by. Denomination after denomination w r as organ- 
ized in this free land during the first fifty years of this 
nineteenth century. The tendency among Christian people 
during the early part of our century was toward division. 
There was then, as you know, but little toleration of differ- 
ences of opinion. If men did not exactly agree in their 
theological thought and speech, if they did not think the 
same things as to the manner in which the church should 
be organized and her work conducted, division was the re- 
sult — a new denomination was organized. We have grown 
out of that period, for which let us thank God! New de- 
nominations are no longer organized. Dr. Briggs will not 
start a new sect. Had his difficulty with his Presbyterian 
brethren occurred fifty years ago, some such result would 
have been inevitable, but not in this year of grace 1893. 
This is a sign. 

Not only are not new denominations organized, but some 
denominations which were in existence a while ago have 
ceased to be; their identity has been lost in other and larger 
bodies belonging to the same family. What has been accom- 
plished in Canada within recent years between Presbyte- 
rians and branches of the Methodist Church, and in the 
United States between the Old and New School Presbyte- 
rians, is but a sign of the times, indicating a tendency to- 
ward union among those who are most alike in belief and 
life. New denominations, I repeat, are out of date. 

The tone of present-day sermons indicates approaching 
union in Christ. 

It will do you good to associate with other people than 
Disciples, who love our L,ord Jesus. When you can do so, 
worship with them, and hear them preach. Preach with 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 163 

them. Work with them. In these ways a union will be 
promoted which will be well pleasing to our Lord. 

Are we not inclined to be provincial, not to say denom- 
inational ? Is it not true that in some places we are, to a 
degree, sectarian ? 

If I at all understand the signs of the times as manifested 
in pulpit and religious-press utterances, theological dogmas 
are being relegated to the background; doctrines are not in 
such high favor as in }^ears that are past. The personal 
Christ is made prominent as never before. Christ is preached, 
and therein I rejoice — yea, and will continue to be glad. 

The fact that the Christ — the man Jesus— is made prom- 
inent, the center of attraction, as at no time in the past, makes 
possible a feature of our religious life to which our fathers 
were strangers. 

Imagine, if you are able to do so, a man at this present 
time, of scholarly attainments and blameless life, arraigned 
for trial by his ecclesiastical courts because he invites a 
Presbyterian, with another label than the one which desig- 
nates him, descriptive of the particular Presbyterian family 
to which he belongs, to sit at the communion table, and in 
the ordinance of love remember the death of our Lord! The 
spirit of our times is such that you are unable to imagine 
such a proceeding. Yet you know that Thomas Campbell 
was arraigned and tried for doing that very thing. While 
that feeling was abroad among professed Christians, the un- 
ion meetings, which form such an interesting feature of our 
times, a feature exceedingly successful in bringing men to 
the Saviour, was not possible. With the exaltation of the 
Son of God, of which I have spoken, union in evangelistic 
work is practicable; and as we work together to save lost 
men, we come to know and to love each other more truly 
and intelligently — a point of much value in the promotion 
of such a union of believers as that for which the Christ fer- 
vently prayed. 

I was in your city a month ago. I went about seeing 
things. Among other places I went to meeting. I attended 
a religious — a Christian — meeting. It was held in a theatre ! 
On the way I was very kindly treated. L,et me tell you 



164 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

about it. I have fallen in love with Chicago ! If I were not 
a citizen of New York I would be pleased to live in Chicago ! 
As I was on my way to that meeting, a gentleman heard me 
say something about the Empire Theatre. From the cut of 
my coat and my general appearance he supposed that I was, 
as a matter of course, looking for the best play in town. 
" Excuse me, sir," he said, " but the Empire Theatre is not 
open to-night. ' ' Now this gentleman was very kind. We 
were then near McVicker's. There was a play at McVick- 
er's. This man thought that to certainly see a good play 
that night it would be well to enter that place. ' ' The Em- 
pire Theatre not open to-night ! " I said. ' * Does not Mr. 
Moody preach there this evening ? " ''Oh," he said, "I 
beg pardon, I do not know anything about that!" 

I reached the Empire Theatre. I am talking now about 
union evangelistic meetings, a characteristic of our times, 
one of the peculiarities of our country — a promise of a deeper, 
more intelligent, and truer Christian union than we have, or 
have had, since the great apostasy in the early centuries of 
the Christian era. I arrived at the theatre after some inter- 
esting experiences, which I cannot at present take time to re- 
late. 

The young man in the vestibule said: " I cannot give 
you a seat. The house is packed." " I will then go into 
the gallery," I said. Then turning from the cut of my coat 
and general appearance he looked into my face. He knew 
then that I was religious, and said: " I will take you to the 
platform. I can give" you a good seat there." And that 
was where I wanted to go. Mr. Moody was not there, but 
Mr. McNeill was. 

I saw something that night which to a New Yorker was 
a surprise and source of joy. The place, a play-house, was 
packed, down stairs, up stairs everywhere, packed with men 
and women, an unusually large per cent, of the great audi- 
ence men, listening to that rugged Scotchman preach. 
Listening to what ? Listening to the familiar story of Zacch- 
eus and Jesus. And how they listened ! The attention that 
was given to that grand man was marvelous. The story 
which he had to tell was exceedingly simple. It was a story 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 165 

with which 3^011 are familiar. He told of the grace of Jesus 
to Zaccheus, the sinner, and what came of it. 

My point is this: Such an audience as came together in 
the Empire Theatre on that August night to hear a plain 
Gospel sermon could not have been called out by any 
preacher representing a denomination. It was a union of 
forces which made this great audience possible. Denomina- 
tionalism was lost to view — the Christ was given the promin- 
ence. And did not the Son of Man Himself say: "And I, 
if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me ?" 
There is something very attractive in Jesus to the multitude 
when He is lifted up in sermon as John McNeill lifted Him 
up that night. 

Nor was this meeting exceptional. In many places in 
Chicago that night, in many parts of the city, all through 
the summer, and at this present hour, such meetings are in 
progress. A union of God's peoples has made, and now 
makes, them possible. 

And here is something the world has not before seen in 
your lifetime, nor in mine, in a great city, in a city sup- 
posed to be devoted to Mammon, in a city popularly sup- 
posed to be under the control, more than any other place in 
the land, of materialism — in this city; I am informed that 
during the entire summer from forty to fifty thousand peo- 
ple have every day heard the Gospel of the grace of God ! 
A limited union of the spiritual children of Our Father has 
done this. Enlarge this union of effort until all who pro- 
fess and call themselves Christians are united in an earnest 
effort to preach Christ to the whole creation, and the time 
would not be far distant when every knee would bow and 
every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. These union meet- 
ings mean much ; these meetings in which Jesus is exalted 
above every name mean much in this present time in spirit- 
ual good to men ; but they are signs of a spirit present con- 
taining promise of such a union of disciples of Jesus as 
men have not thought possible. 

Another thing I may be permitted to mention which 
contains promise of good. 

I now refer to the fact that the leading Protestant de- 



166 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

nominations have each their committee on Christian un- 
ion. Is this not a sign of the times ? Is it not a sign which 
prophesies union? 

The Protestant Episcopal Church in recent times led 
the way in this, but the Presbyterian and other denomina- 
tions have now their committees, the purpose of which is 
the promotion of union. 

Let this fact also be noted: Episcopalians and Disci- 
ples are the only people who have come before Christen- 
dom with definite plans of union. Other people are inter- 
ested in Christian union, talk in favor of it, write in behalf 
of it, pray for it, sing about it, and all that, but Disciples 
and Episcopalians come before the world not only to preach, 
and write, and discuss, and hold conventions, and pass res- 
olutions, and pray, and sing, but each submits a definite 
basis, saying, in effect, "On this platform we believe Chris- 
tian union can be realized." It is no part of my purpose to 
discuss these bases of union, but I may be permitted to call 
attention to them as signs of the times. The following 
basis is proposed by our brethren of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church: 

(i.) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, as ' ' containing all things necessary to salvation, ' ' 
and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith. 

(2.) The Apostle's Creed, as the baptismal symbol; 
and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the 
Christian faith. 

(3.) The two sacraments ordained by Christ Himself — 
baptism and the Supper of the L,ord — ministered with un- 
failing use of Christ's words of institution and of the ele- 
ments ordained by Him. 

(4.) The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the 
methods of its administration to the varying needs of the 
nations and peoples called of God into the unity of His 
Church. 

This is the proposition of the Episcopal Church formally 
presented by her bishops. 

The Disciples say: "The way to there-union of Chris- 
tendom is by a return in faith and in practice, in letter and 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 167 

in spirit, in doctrine and in ordinance, to the religion of 
Jesns as He gave it to men — the religion of Christ as it is 
described in the New Testament. ' ' 

Three points are especially involved, as follows: 

(1.) The creed — Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the 
living God. 

(2.) The ordinances — baptism and the Supper of the 
Lord. 

(3.) The life of the Christian — the primitive Christian 
life, a life fashioned according to the perfect life of the 
Author and Finisher of the Faith. 

That the denominations have their committees on un- 
ion, keeping thus the subject before the mind continually, 
and that the above definite propositions have been made, 
challenging the ■ attention of mankind — these are signs of 
the times full of promise of a real Christian union, I must 
be permitted to think and to say, in the not remote future. 

This Parliament of Religions is another sign that is full 
of promise. 

Do you comprehend the meaning of this parliament? 
If you do, take this platform and speak. The subject is too 
large for me! 

How much it promises! We had to wait until Chicago 
was built before there was a city in which a Parliament of 
Religions could be held; we had to wait until the greatest 
World's Fair the sun in the heavens ever looked down upon 
was organized; it was necessary to wait until such freedom 
of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of action were 
permitted as belongs to this year of grace 1893; we had to 
wait until these and other similar things were possible be- 
fore such a meeting as the Parliament of Religions could be 
held. 

At any earlier date, in any other land, in almost any 
other city, such a convocation would be impossible. 

Some, unable to read aright the signs of the times, pre- 
dicted a war of words, a disgraceful wrangle. They thought 
that it would be impossible to come together and freely pre- 
sent various religious, theological, and philosophical beliefs, 
in peace. War was predicted. There has been no war. 



168 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

Even signs of conflict are not seen. No unusual police force 
has been called for at the Art Institute Building. China- 
men, Indiamen, Greeks, Romans, Japanese, Persians, and • 
I know not from what other quarters of the earth, are here 
assembled,' and with the utmost freedom have spoken out 
their beliefs. Jews, Protestants, Roman Catholics, Angli- 
cans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, 
Lutherans, Universalists, Unitarians, Swedenborgians, Bap- 
tists, Disciples of Christ — all have come together under 
one roof, and not a man has hesitated to speak out what he 
thinks. 

Is there no good to come from this gathering of the re- 
ligions of the world by their representatives in this open 
parliament ? 

The final result of this comparison of beliefs and opin- 
ions no man knows. This meeting is but a beginning. 
The addresses delivered only open the subject for discussion. 
After they shall have been given to the world in book form, we 
will begin to think, and the thinking will go on and on, 
and a score of years from this present time the fruitage of 
this first Parliament of Religions will begin to be gathered 
in. And this first will probably be followed by other simi- 
lar meetings, and thus more and more the religious thought 
and the deep religious life of the world will be revealed. 
Nor is there a doubt in my mind that our blessed I^ord will 
ultimately reign supreme. Every knee shall bow, and 
every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Iyord. 

Permit me before I close this talk to mention another 
sign of the times which contains a distinct promise of Chris- 
tian union. 

I now think of the Seventh International Sunday-school 
Convention, and the Second World's Sunday-school Con- 
gress, which last week and the week before were in session 
in St. Iyouis. 

A feature of these conventions, as of those which have 
preceded, was the fact that all creeds of human construction, 
filled with all sorts of theologies; such creeds had no place 
in this great convocation. They were not so much as al- 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 169 

luded to. The delegates to these conventions were devoted 
simply and only to the Son of God. 

I remember well the first time I ever saw your B. F. 
Jacobs. He lives in Chicago, and so I speak of him as yours, 
but, the fact is, he belongs to all of us, to the world, for B. F. 
Jacobs is too large a man for even Chicago to contain. 

I remember the first time I saw Mr. Jacobs. It was in 
the International Sunday-school Convention which met in 
Toronto, in 1881. 

We were registering our names. Mr. Jacobs registered 
his name and moved on. Some one— the young man in 
charge of the registration booth — called him back and re- 
quested him to indicate on the book his denominational 
connection. This he hesitated to do. "But," said the 
young man, " it is a rule that each delegate shall record his 
denominational affiliation." Mr. Jacobs replied in atone 
which seemed to me to betray the least bit of impatience, 
" If I must, then I will. Put me down as a Baptist." 

He seemed to think that it ought to be quite sufficient to 
be in such a place a Christian — and he was right. B. F. 
Jacobs was not, is not, asnamed of the fact that he is a mem- 
ber of a Baptist Church. Shame did not cause him to hesi- 
tate, but in such places we come together as Christians. 
These Sunday-school conventions represent no human creed, 
they stand for the Word of God, and for that alone. The 
aim of the Sunday-school is to train the children to believe 
in and live for Christ. He alone, they are taught, is I^ord. 
The effort of the Sunday-school is, first of all, to bring the 
young into a Divine fellowship. They are to be made 
Christians. They are then to be nurtured as babes in Christ. 

Inasmuch as some have asked me about the meeting of 
the International Sunday-school lesson Committee in St. 
IyOuis, I will say a word about the committee and its meet- 
ing. Some have said, ' ' You had some trouble in St. IyOuis, 
had you not?" I will tell you a secret. Here is a bit of 
inside history: About as near Paradise as I have ever been 
in this world is when I am in the meetings of this Interna- 
tional Sunday-school Lesson Committee. "Is it possible 
for men to come together, members of different denomina- 



170 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

tions, to select lessons from the Bible to be studied through- 
out Christendom without some one attempting to force his 
peculiar doctrine?" It is not only possible, but it is cer- 
tain that this is done, and has been for more than twenty 
years. Such an effort has never been made. The men on 
the Iyesson Committee have the spirit of Christ. They are 
men of God. They are too large and too good to attempt 
anything so small as would be the pushing of any merely 
denominational interest. 

Disciples of Christ certainly have no reason to complain. 
There is a general impression abroad that the Book of Acts 
of Apostles is their favorite book. If this impression is 
well founded, they ought to be especially well pleased with 
the work of the committee, for during the twenty-one years 
which have passsed since the committee began its work, a 
larger number of lessons has been selected from Acts than 
from any other book in the entire Bible. 

But what I began to say is that the meetings of the com- 
mittee are entirely harmonious and pre-eminently Christian, 
and their work makes for Christian union, as does the work 
of the International Sunday-school Convention. 

Can we, under Christ, with His book as our guide, live 
together in peace ? 

In these twenty-one years we have never had a single 
unpleasant incident, so I am informed. I have not been a 
member for that length of time, and so cannot speak from 
knowledge, but this is the information which I have ob- 
tained, and believe to be correct. The One Book has been 
the guide of this committee during all these years, and a 
sufficient guide it has been. Why not a sufficient guide 
through all time for the entire Church of God ? 

The Sunday-school work as at present prosecuted promi- 
ses to make the coming generation of disciples more intelli- 
gent than preceding generations have been, more thoroughly 
united to the Christ, and to each other through Him, study- 
ing the same lessons, thinking the same thoughts, using the 
same words, coming into contact with the mind and spirit 
permeating the One Book — of necessity, there must be a com- 
ing together under Christ. 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 171 

The Sunday-school work is a most important sign of the 
times promising Christian union. 

It would be an almost unpardonable sin (I do not say 
the sin against the Holy Ghost) to fail to speak of the 
Christian Endeavor movement. 

The Disciples of Christ pray and work for the re-union 
of Christendom on the platform on which believers stood 
in the Apostolic age of the church. 

The fact ought to be noted that there are one million 
five hundred thousand young people who have signed a 
pledge in which they say: 

" Trusting in the L,ord Jesus Christ for strength, I prom- 
ise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would like to 
have me do." 

Can you put the basis on which we ask men to unite in 
fewer words, in a better style of speech, than that? 

These young people are being trained to think of Christ 
as alone possessing authority in the department of religion. 
One of their mottoes, the motto, is the words of Jesus: 
' ' One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren ' ' 
— the motto, by the way, with' which Alexander Campbell 
began the publication of the Christian Baptist, just seventy 
years ago. Their pledge says: " I will read the Bible and 
pray every day, and just so far as I know how I will en- 
deavor to live the Christian life." 

Do you not see, dear brethren, that all along in these 
movements there is the idea, first, of union with Christ, and 
after that union with one another under Christ ? And this 
is the way to Christian union. 

You may hold conventions, deliver addresses, pass reso- 
lutions, construct platforms, but the Master solved the whole 
problem when He said: " And I, if I be lifted up from the 
earth, will draw all men unto me. ' ' 

And if you are drawn toward Christ, and if I am drawn 
toward Christ, do you not see that we are drawn toward one 
another? And this is Christian union. Believe me, be- 
loved, the Head of the Body, our L,ord Jesus, is directing 
this matter. 

I do not know of any sign of the times that gives greater 



172 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSER 

promise of Christian union than the work in which all dis- 
ciples of Jesus are becoming more and more interested; the 
work of world-wide evangelization. So long as the tendency 
is to bring the Christ to the front, in all things giving Him 
pre-eminence, there is promise of Christian union. And 
those who are in the foreign mission field tell us that Christ 
is what the people want. Denominationalism does not sat- 
isfy. This work is bringing us together with great rapidity. 

You express surprise sometimes that there seems to be a 
prejudice against those who wish to be, and to be known, as 
Disciples of Christ. Iyet me give you an incident: 

It fell to my lot to supply a Presbyterian pulpit in Hali- 
fax, Nova Scotia, on a Lord's Day evening five years ago 
last summer. 

I went to the church early, and was met by some of the 
officers. Entering the study, we sat down for a little talk. 
They wanted to know something about the people with 
whom I am identified. They did not ask a word about doc- 
trine. They did not inquire into our organization. Our 
administration of ordinances did not seem to concern them. 
They asked: " What are you doing in the foreign mission 
field?" 

I told them, of course, that we are yet young, that we 
have been busy erecting houses of worship in our own land, 
and in- the founding and endowment of institutions of learn- 
ing, and in these things we have had remarkable success; 
but that we are entering the foreign field, and have seventy- 
five missionaries at work in lands beyond the seas. (This, 
remember, was five years ago — I could make a better report 
now.) One of the sturdy old Scotch elders, with a smile 
of approval, said to his brothers in office: " I tell you that 
is good!" 

When he saw that we were joining hands with others in 
preaching Christ to the heathen, it was apparent that he and 
his brethren rejoiced and were ready to bid us a hearty God- 
speed. 

I made another discovery, and have been, at least in this 
one respect, a pretty good Presbyterian ever since. This 
was not a missionary meeting, but they sang, 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 173 

"From Greenland's icy mountains, 
From India's coral strand." 

This is the way; I said to myself; this is the way the 
Presbyterian Church manages to collect so large a sum of 
money for missions. They are interested in missions all the 
time. They are so full of zeal in this good cause that they 
inquire of a strange minister, not, " How do you baptise?" 
not, "How often do you spread the Lord's table?" not, 
"What is your peculiar creed?" but, first of all, " What are 
you doing to make known the Christ to the multitudes who 
sit in the region of death?" So deeply interested that they 
sing in a regular Lord's Day evening meeting, 

"From Greenland's icy mountains." 

In this respect I want to be a " true blue ' ' Presbyterian. 

Is not the recently organized Brotherhood of Christian 
Unity a sign of the times which contains a promise of 
Christian union ? 

It does not promise much. It is crude. It is a sign, a 
small sign. There is not much in it; this is my opinion at 
present, subject, of course, as are all my opinions, to revis- 
ion. But I cannot speak at length on this movement. 

But, finally, beloved brethren, the most promising sign, 
after all, is the fact that the people who love to be called 
Disciples of Christ are coming to understand themselves 
better. They seem to know what they want better than 
ever before. Let us be honest; we have not always been 
able to say in plain English exactly what we have thought 
as to the basis of union. Our thinking, and consequently 
our speech, is becoming clearer. Those of you who have 
been living a long time, or who are familiar with our litera- 
ture from the beginning, know very well that the utterances 
of the Disciples thirty years ago on this very subject were 
not on the high plane which characterized the addresses to 
which we have listened with so much interest and pleasure 
in the Art Building. There has been no confusion of thought 
there. There has been no talk about the Bible being the 
creed of the church. When President Zollars spoke on the 
creed that needs no revision, he did not affirm that the Bible 



174 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

is such a creed. The creed that needs no revision is this: 
Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 

Nor have we in this congress heard loose talk about the 
restoration of primitive Christianity! What do you mean 
by the restoration of primitive Christianity ? Do you mean 
to say that you contend for the restoration in practice of 
whatever you find enjoined in the New Testament? Well, 
five times in the New Testament the kiss of charity is en- 
joined on believers, and I have not had a kiss since I came 
to Chicago! It is clear that the Disciples in this part of the 
world do not believe in that particular part of primitive 
Christianity. 

Do you contend for the restoration in practice of every- 
thing enjoined by Jesus or his Apostles in your plea for 
the restoration of primitive Christianity ? 

What about the washing of one another' s feet ? See the 
thirteenth chapter of John. The washing of feet is men- 
tioned, apparently, as a saving ordinance. Our L,ord said: 
" If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. ' ' Can you 
find any expression as to the value of baptism as strong as 
that? But we practice baptism, and decline, as a religious 
ordinance, to wash one another's feet. Why we do so, it is 
no part of my duty here and now to explain. The fact re- 
mains, and it is spoken of merely to show that when we 
contend for the restoration of primitive Christianity, we do 
not, in reality, contend that men ought to do every single 
thing mentioned as a duty by Christ and his Apostles in the 
New Testament. 

As I read the New Testament, there is not a word in it 
in favor of such singing as that in which we have this eve- 
ning engaged. Solo singing is spoken of in the New Testa- 
ment, but not congregational singing! Now if there is any 
one thing in public worship which especially vexes me, it is 
the singing of a solo; ana if there is any part of worship in 
which I find especial pleasure, it is in hearty congregational 
singing. 

The fact is, dear brethren, that we have eliminated that 
and retained this until we think we know what of primitive 
Christianity we desire to see restored. This was not true 



WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 175 

when some of our fathers practiced the washing of feet and 
the kiss of charity as religious ordinances. If I had time I 
could give you the steady evolution of the Disciples, and 
show how it came to pass that they occupy the position which 
at present they maintain before the world. 

In the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul reasoned about the 
transient and permanent in Christianity until he reached the 
following conclusion: " And now abidcth faith, hope, and 
charity.'" The emphatic word in this last verse of First 
Corinthians, thirteenth chapter, is the word abideth. Faith, 
hope, and charity abide, all else is temporary. This is the 
teaching of Paul. 

What then becomes of ordinances? Are not baptism 
and the Lord's Supper discarded with the washing of feet 
and the kiss of charity ? 

By no means! Paul did not discard these ordinances, 
nor can we if we adhere to his teaching. He did not regard 
the practices of which I have spoken as features of Chris- 
tianity, as ordinances appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but baptism and the communion he did so regard, and so 
also do we. 

Faith, and hope, and love must speak. They must ex- 
press themselves. Faith is not dumb. Hope is not silent. 
Love cannot be still. Faith in the Lord Jesus is shown in 
baptism. In this ordinance the believer says: " Here, Lord, 
I give my self to Thee!" Baptism is the ordinance of faith. 
Our tenderest love for the dying Saviour we declare at the 
communion table. The Lord's Supper is the ordinance of 
love. In both baptism and the Lord's Supper we declare 
that our hope is in Christ. The abiding principles of the 
Christian religion are faith, hope, and love. Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper furnish opportunities for an express- 
ion of the fact that we experience faith, hope, and love. 
And by thus declaring our experiences they are deepened, 
they increase in strength. 

After the addresses to which we have listened in this 
I am encouraged to affirm that we now know what 



176 WORLD'S CONGRESS ADDRESSES. 

we mean by the restoration of primitive Christianity, and we 
are able to plead for this restoration as never before. 

A few years ago, in one of our papers, one of our chief 
men, a man of superior ability, in a series of articles at- 
tempted to answer the question: How much of primitive 
Christianity do we want ? This series of papers was never 
finished. I leave you to infer, after what has been said, the 
reason why. Such a statement could at the present time be 
made by scores of men, and with general satisfaction. 

We know nqw what we want, and this is one of the en- 
couraging signs of the times. 

We want the primitive creed of which President Zollars 
spoke. We want the primitive ordinances — baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. We want the primitive life, the life of the 
sinless Son of Man, reproduced in our places and stations. 
This, beloved, is only another way of saying with Paul, 
" And now abideth faith, hope, and love." 

I am delighted by the beautiful spirit, the gentle, the 
Christ-like spirit, pervading the minds and hearts, and 
thus controlling the lives, of those who profess to be the 
friends and followers of Jesus. Never before have men 
studied the teaching of the Christ as they are looking into 
this doctrine at the present day. The man Jesus is studied 
to-day as never before. Men are applying the principles 
of Christ to the solution of present-day problems with an 
earnestness which contains promise of good. Before Him 
all classes in all nations are assembling that they may be 
taught of God. The wise men of the world will yet gather 
around the bench of the carpenter of Galilee and learn from 
Him the true political economy. 

The signs of the times are full of promise of a union in 
faith, and hope, and love around the Christ, of all who 
profess and call themselves Christians, and this means that 
the day approaches when the kingdoms of this world will be- 
come the kingdom of our Lord and His anointed. 



Missionary Convention Addresses 




A. McLean. 



THE GOSPEL OF SALVATION 



A. MC LEAN. 



" I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to ever}' one that believeth." — Rom. i: 16. 

The word translated ' 'power' ' is the Greek word for dyna- 
mite. The Spirit declares that the Gospel is God's dyna- 
mite. History confirms the statement that it is able to save 
every one that believes. Thus far no soul has been found 
so dark and so brutish that the Gospel could not enlighten 
and ennoble and make him worthy to be a partaker of the 
inheritance of the saints in light. This is the truth I wish 
to illustrate. 

I. Let us consider some of the triumphs won by the 
Gospel in the most difficult fields. Canon Kingsley thought 
the people of Africa could not take in the Gospel ; he spoke 
of them as poor brutes in human shape, and felt that they 
must perish off the face of the earth like brute beasts. The 
Portuguese regarded the Hottentots as a race of apes, and 
wrote over their church doors, " Dogs and Hottentots not 
admitted. ' ' The Zulu sold his children for cattle. He slept 
in a kraal that was little better than a dog kennel. In the 
morning he crept out to stay his hunger by living like the 
jackal — on the leavings of the lion — or by feeding like the 
vulture on carrion. The Kaffir made his mother carry bur- 
dens like a packhorse and dig in the ground like a slave. 
When she was worn out with age and work he exposed her 
to be devoured by wild beasts. There are now over 700 
ordained missionaries and 7,500 ordained and unordained 
native preachers in Africa, with 800,000 adherents to Chris- 
tianitv under their care. The Kaffirs have not only received 



182 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

the truth, but have organized a society to carry it into the 
regions beyond. The Kaffir cares for his mother in her old 
age as she cared for him in his infancy. The Zulu lives in 
a frame house, wears garments of cloth, supports schools 
and churches, and is ready to take his place in the forward 
march of nations. Dr. Pritchard said: "It is indeed sur- 
prising, after all we have heard of the sloth and brutal sen- 
suality of the Hottentots, to learn that no other uncivilized 
race has given a more willing ear to the preaching of Chris- 
tianity, and that none has been more strikingly and splen- 
didly impressed by its reception." Moffat tells us of Afri- 
caner: He was outlawed; a price was offered for his head. 
He was an incarnate fiend, disposed to murder the mission- 
ary that he might make a drumhead of his skin and a drink- 
ing cup of his skull. When his conversion was reported, no 
one was prepared to credit it. It was said, "There are 
seven wonders in the world; this would be the eighth." 
When the report was confirmed , it was spoken of as a mir- 
acle of grace and power. This man, who had been a fire- 
brand, spreading discord, enmity and war among neighbor- 
ing tribes, became an advocate of peace and good-will, a 
helper in the mission, a winner of souls. Stanley tells us 
that many Christians in Uganda endured the most deadly 
persecution — the stake and the fire, the cord and the club, 
the sharp knife and the rifle bullet. Stanch in their belief, 
firm in their convictions, they have held together stoutly 
and resolutely. No one acquainted with Bishop Crowther's 
character and service would say with Kingsley that the Af- 
rican is only a poor brute and must perish like a brute 
beast. 

Henry Marty n said: " If ever I see a Hindu converted 
to Jesus Christ, I shall see something more nearly ap- 
proaching the resurrection of a dead body than anything 
I have yet seen." That was at the beginning of the cen- 
tury. In our day a native paper says: "We daily see Hin- 
dus of every caste becoming Christians and devoted mission- 
aries of the Cross. ' ' Sir Edwin Arnold was asked respecting 
the prospect of India's conversion , to Christ. He said: 
' ' You might as well try to sweeten the Atlantic Ocean by 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 183 

pouring cologne water into it. " To a traveler who looks at 
the surface only, and who has no conception of the mighty 
power of the Gospel of the grace of God, the task may seem 
hopeless. But it is not so in fact. Sir Bartle Frere has 
said: " Christianity has, in the course of fifty years, made 
its way to every part of the vast mass of Indian civilized hu- 
manity, and is now an active, operative, aggressive power 
in every branch of social and political life on that continent. ' ' 
The testimony of Sir Herbert Edwardes agrees with this: 
" Every other faith in India is decaying; Christianity alone 
is beginning to run its course. It has taken root, and by 
God's grace will never be uprooted. The converts were 
tested by persecution and martyrdom; they stood the test 
without apostasy . ' ' Schwartz labored in southern India forty 
years, and left 10,000 converts behind him. At Ongole in 
ten days 8,691 were baptized. In Tinnevelly, after twenty 
years of preparatoty toil, in seven months more than 16,000 
placed themselves under instruction with a view to Chris- 
tian baptism. The rate of increase from 1851 to 1861 was 
fifty-three per cent.; from 1861 to 187 1, it was sixty-one per 
cent.; from 187 1 to 188 1, it was eighty-six per cent.; from 
188 1 to 1 89 1, it was 100 per cent. There are not less than 
600,000 Protestant Christians in India, Burma and Ceylon. 
The natives of Borneo used to be called head-hunters. 
Their delight was in head-taking, and their constant aim 
was to strike off the heads of their real or supposed enemies. 
In many provinces no one was allowed to marry who could 
not show a certain number of heads which he had recently 
struck off. Since missionaries have been at work in Borneo, 
there has been a great change among them. Their war- 
shields have been used as playthings for the children; the 
deadly weapon which could easily cut off a man's head at a 
single sweep has become a rusty heirloom; and their im- 
mense war boats have fallen to pieces. An American trav- 
eler says: " Nowhere in the world, so far as I know, are life 
and property so secure and sacred as among the once fierce 
head-hunters of Sarawak. I have been robbed by white 
men in the United States, by black men in the Indies, East 
and West, by red men in South America, and by yellow 



i8 4 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

men in the far East; but among the Dyaks, with no pro- 
tection to either person or property, I never lost a pin's 
worth by theft. Had they been like the negroes of Barba- 
does, or the Mexicans of the Rio Grande, they could have 
stripped me of all my movables with perfect safety to them- 
selves. But their honesty afforded my property more im- 
pregnable security than the average bank vault does here. ' ' 
A century ago the people of the South Seas were the most 
degraded on earth. Darkness covered the lands and gross 
darkness the people. In some places when a child was born 
a priest was sent to pray that he might grow up to be a 
murderer, a liar, a thief, a libertine, glorying in the com- 
mission of every crime. A man was accounted honorable 
in proportion to the number of men he had killed for canni- 
bal feasts. When James Calvert arrived in Fiji his first duty 
was to bury the hands, arms, feet and heads of eighty vic- 
tims whose bodies had been roasted and eaten. He lived to 
see these very cannibals gather around the table of the Lord. 
Thakombau, the king of Fiji, told John Hunt that white 
men make good eating; they taste like ripe bananas. This 
man was among the converts. In the presence of widows 
whose husbands he had slain, sisters whose brothers had 
been strangled by his orders, relatives whose friends he had 
eaten, he confessed, saying with a broken voice and tears: 
' ' I have been a bad man. I have disturbed the community. 
I have scourged the world." He became a faithful, gentle, 
intelligent and devout Christian. He was a new man and 
called himself by a new name, " Ebenezer." He lived for 
twenty-nine years respected and loved by all who knew him. 
Out of a population of 120,000, 102,000 are regular worship- 
ers in the churches. In every family there is prayer night 
and morning. The first sound that greets the ear at dawn 
and the last sound heard at night is that of the hymns sung 
at family worship. The Fijis engage in missions. When 
some volunteers for New Guinea were told that they were 
going to death among cannibals, the classroom rang with 
the noble response: "Talk not to us about cannibals; they 
are men; and they need that which has brought us life." 
Mr. Paton found the people of the New Hebrides painted 



MISSIOXA R } ' COX I r ENTION A DDR ESSES. 1 85 

savages; they were ignorant, vicious and bigoted. Seeing 
a heap of human bones, he asked: ' ' What are these ? ' ' They 
calmly replied: ' ' We do not eat the bones." There was no 
sense of security of either life or property. When the peo- 
ple went to church they carried a brood of fowls or a litter of 
pigs with them. The preaching was interrupted by the 
squealing of the pigs, or the barking of the pups, or the 
chirruping of the chickens. There were wars and rumors of 
wars among the tribes. Under the preaching of the Gospel 
12,000 cannibals confessed their faith in the Christ. On the 
island where Mr. Paton labored, the whole population turned 
from dumb idols to serve the living God. The chiefs said: 
1 ' We are men of Christ now, we must prevent or punish 
murder and other crimes among our people." Every con- 
vert is in some sense a missionary. 

The natives of New Zealand taught their children to be cru- 
el, warlike, false, dishonest. Pebbles were thrust down their 
throats to make their hearts hard. The Maoris tortured or made 
slaves of captives taken in war, or killed and ate them. 
Marsden brought the Gospel to them. Now cannibalism is 
unknown in that country, heathenism is almost extinct, 
and such a state of social progress attained that Karl Ritter 
was led to call it the standing miracle of the age. Darwin 
tells what he saw. ' ' The house had been built, the win- 
dows framed, the fields plowed, and even the trees grafted 
by the New Zealander. ' ' He thought it admirable, and spoke 
of the lesson of the missionary as the enchanter's wand. 
Twenty-five years ago the dwellers in New Guinea were the 
fiercest of savages. They delighted in bloody deeds. Each 
man had a tattoo mark on his back and chest, like a medal 
of honor, for every person he had slain, and he was proud 
of it. War was perpetual. Probably no other mission can 
show such good • results as this. A stranger is as safe in 
New Guinea as in Boston or New York. The first mission- 
aries to the Sandwich Islands found the people living in the 
surf and in the sand, eating raw fish, fighting among them- 
selves, tyrannized over by feudal chiefs, abandoned to sensu- 
ality, and offering human sacrifices. Some years ago M. 
D. Conway visited Honolulu. He expected to witness 



1 86 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

merry scenes— islanders swimming around the ship in Arca- 
dian innocence, and the joyous song and dance of guileless 
children of the sun. Instead he found a silent city, para- 
lyzed by piety. Never in Scotland or Connecticut had he 
seen such a paralysis as fell upon that city on Sunday. He 
had to go to church to see the people. When the work be- 
gan, it was thought that it would take a thousand years to 
uplift and ennoble these people. At the jubilee celebration, 
the motto emblazoned everywhere was, ' ' Righteousness ex- 
alteth a nation." Not less than seventy-five islanders have 
gone out as missionaries, and the island church has contrib- 
uted $170,000 to support them in their work. It is about 
seventy-five years since the work began in Polynesia. In 
that time 750,000 have been won to the faith. A band of not 
less than 160 young men and women has gone out from 
Tahiti to carry the Gospel to the islands }^et in darkness, that 
. the Scriptures may be fulfilled, ' ' They shall hear to whom 
no tidings of Him came, and they that have not heard shall 
understand." 

Dr. March speaks of the Japanese as reduced in stature 
and weakened in body by their low and wasting vices. They 
are the most dissolute people on earth. They have no pity 
for suffering, no gentleness for the feeble, no tenderness for 
children. They are reckless of life, and build monuments to 
murderers; their punishments are too horrible to be described. 
Under the influence of the Gospel Japan has proclaimed a 
constitution; has given the right of suffrage to the people; 
has built railroads and schools and universities; has started 
newspapers; has established banks, postoffices, mint, lines of 
steamships; in a word, has introduced western civilization. 
Her leading men believe that the Gospel is the greatest 
power in the universe for lifting up decayed nations and for 
giving life and hope to millions long wandering in darkness. 
Dr. March says, ' ' They have come to the conclusion that 
Christianity has quickened mind, stimulated invention, in- 
creased power, multiplied riches, advanced science, improved 
education, intensified effort, awakened hope and high expec- 
tation among all western nations. Aback of steamships, 
telegraphs, railways, telephones; aback of all inventions in 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 187 

the arts, all discoveries in science, all advance in civiliza- 
tion, they see Christianity. They are ready to give up their 
despotic government, their gross idolatry, their popular tra- 
ditions and sacred customs, and even their national language, 
if they can only get the power, the progress, the grand ad- 
vance, and the great hope which the Gospel gives to all who 
receive its word and walk in its light." 

General Sheridan said: ' ' The only good Indian is a dead 
Indian. ' ' Our nation has spent $500,000,000 in Indian wars. 
In one war it cost $1,000,000 and the lives of twenty-five 
men to kill one Indian. If a tithe of this vast sum had been 
spent in seeking to evangelize them, the results would be 
more gratifying. The Indian can be reached and regener- 
ated. Ninety thousand have been won and are now living 
lives that adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. The 
reason that more has not been done is that the nation has not 
kept faith with the Indian. The government records, speak- 
ing of what has been done among the Indians, say: "The 
savages have been changed. How was the transformation 
wrought ? When the government failed, the voluntary ef- 
forts of the churches have been crowned with success. The 
preaching of the Gospel has done the work, and it alone." 
When some Indians at Washington asked for some of the 
good medicine that had made the whites so rich and strong, 
General Howard held up a Bible and said: ' ' This is the good 
medicine that has done all for us; it will do as much for 
you." 

Christlieb has shown that there are no people so spiritu- 
ally dead that the Gospel cannot quicken them unto new 
life. There is no language so barbarous that the Scriptures 
cannot be translated into it. There is no race that cannot 
hear and respond to the voice of the Good Shepherd. There 
are no more continents or islands to be discovered. From 
Greenland to Terra del Fuego the power of the Gospel has 
been tested among people of every tongue and tribe and ev- 
ery grade of civilization. No people more degraded and 
imbruted can be found. The lowest races have been reached. 
No greater obstacles can be encountered than have been over- 
come. The Gospel has shown itself sufficient for every case. 



188 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

It has scored its triumphs on every field. It has proved in 
a new and large sense the truth of the proverb: " Man's ex- 
tremity is God's opportunity." The Gospel that in the first 
century vanquished the bigotry of Jerusalem, the idolatry of 
Antioch and Athens, the licentiousness of Cypress and Cor- 
inth, the barbarism of Lystra and Malta, the magic of 
Kphesus, the prowess of Rome; and won triumphs every 
place, from the prison in Philippi to Caesar's household — that 
Gospel has lost none of its Divine power, and can point to 
more splendid victories in the nineteenth century than in the 
first even. It has won men of all religions and of no relig- 
ion. It has won fetich worshipers in Africa, devil worship- 
ers in Ceylon, polytheists in China, pantheists in India, the 
civilized Japanese and the degraded Papuan. It preaches 
truths that wake to perish never. No faith or race can long 
withstand its majestic and continuous march. The Gospel 
is all-sufficient to save the believer, whether he have the 
genius and culture of Newton and Pascal and Gladstone, or 
whether he be as low in the scale as Africaner, Thakombau 
and Pomare. The Gospel found the Anglo-Saxons as low 
in the scale of civilization as the Hottentots. It made them 
what they are, the most prosperous and progressive people 
on the globe. Having expelled their debasing Superstitions 
and having made them decent and moral and spiritual, 
the Gospel can save any other race. 

II. Let me call attention to some other views that have 
been held on this subject. Some think we must civilize first, 
and Christianize afterwards. The church of Scotland thought 
it absurd to send the Gospel to heathen and barbarous peo- 
ple. Stanley thinks the way to elevate Africa is to give her 
people the arts and comforts of civilized life, and thus beget 
a desire for something better than they now possess. War- 
burton thought Romish and Protestant missions had failed of 
the largest results because they attempted to Christianize be- 
fore civilizing. This view was held by neatly all, but it is a 
reversal of the Divine order, and experience shows that it 
does not work well. It is only as the nature is renewed that 
people desire any improvement in other directions. Thus 
when the government of Canada provided houses and cloth- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 189 

ing and food for the Chippeways, hoping thus to lead them 
to exert themselves to perpetuate these comforts, it was 
found that they preferred their wigwams and skins, their raw 
flesh and filth, to the cleanliness and comforts of a civilized 
home. The Friends began with the Indians by trying to civ- 
ilize, them, but after many years of laborious and costly ef- 
fort they confessed that their course was a mistaken one, for 
they could not point to a single individual who had been 
brought to a full adoption of Christianity. The Moravians 
made the same mistake in Greenland, and it was not until 
they changed their course that they made any impression 
upon the natives. Marsden said at first, " Civilization must 
work in preparing for conversion. Trade, manufactures and 
arts prepare the way for the introduction of the Gospel." 
The theory was false. The experiment was a failure. Not 
a single conversion was reported. After twenty years he 
said: "Civilization is not necessary before Christianity. We 
may give both simultaneously if we will, but it will always be 
found that civilization follows Christianity." Sir Bartle 
Frere said: " Civilization cannot precede Christianity. The 
only successful way of dealing with all races is to teach them 
the Gospel in the simplest manner possible. ' ' In New South 
Wales the Government spent $400,000 in trying to better the 
condition of the natives, but the experiment was a complete 
failure. They received their allowances of brandy and to- 
bacco regularly, but no one was helped thereby. The French 
tried to persuade some Arabs to live in houses built for them. 
A little while after a chief was asked about his house. ' ' I 
am delighted with it. The French are a wonderful people. 
They have done me a service for which I shall always be 
grateful. Since my house has been finished I have not lost a 
single sheep. I lock them in my house every evening, and 
the next morning there is never one missing. " " W^here do 
you stay ? " "A man of blood like me could live nowhere 
but in a tent." James C. Bryant, of South Africa, said: ' ' To 
think of civilizing the heathen without converting them is 
about as wise as to think of transforming swine into lambs 
merely by washing and putting on them a fleece of wool. ' ' 
Colenso attempted to civilize without Christianizing. He 



i 9 o MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

took twelve Zulu lads into his service for a time. He made 
no effort to bias their religious faith. When their time ex- 
pired he gave them some good counsel. The next day they 
were gone; they left their European clothes behind, as they 
went back to barbarism. Colenso went over to the Ameri- 
can mission, laid a note for £$o on the treasurer's desk, and 
said: " You were right; I was wrong." Captain Cook took 
a South Sea Islander to London. On his return a home was 
built for him, a garden planted, presents were made of horses 
and goats, of gunpowder, balls, muskets, swords, an electric 
machine, a barrel organ, and all sorts of toys and gewgaws. 
What was the result ? As soon as the ships were gone he 
abandoned his clothing. He was the King's friend, and 
must often shoot a man to show how far his musket would 
carry, or how quickly his pistol would kill. He lived in 
idleness and profligacy. A New Zealand chief was taken to 
London to be civilized. The first thing he did on his return 
after a battle in which he was victorious, was to tear out and 
swallow the right eye of his slain enemy and to bite into his 
still fluttering heart. Moffat spent sixty years in Africa. It 
was his conviction that evangelization must precede civiliza- 
tion. He said that nothing less than Divine grace can change 
the hearts of savages, after which the mind is susceptible of 
those instructions which teach them to adorn the Gospel in 
their attire as well as in their spirit and actions. John Will- 
iams said, ' ' I am convinced that the first step toward the pro- 
motion of a nation' s temporal and social elevation is to plant 
among them the Tree of Life, when civilization and commerce 
will entwine their tendrils around its trunk, and derive sup- 
port from its strength. Until the people are brought under 
the influence of religion, they have no desire for the arts and 
usages of civilized life; but that invariably creates it. ' ' James 
Chalmers said, " I have seen the semi-civilized and the un- 
civilized; I have lived with the Christian native, and I have 
lived, dined and slept with a cannibal. But I have never 
yet met with a single man or woman, or with a single peo- 
ple, that your civilization without Christianity has civilized. 
For God' s sake let it be done at once ! Gospel and com- 
merce, but remember this, it must be the Gospel first. When- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 191 

ever there has been the slightest spark of civilization in the 
Sonth Seas, it has been when the Gospel has been preached. 
Civilization ! The rampart can only be stormed by those 
who carry the Cross. ' ' President Angell said of China that 
it would not receive our locomotives and telegraphs until it 
had bowed the knee to Christ. It is a mistake to suppose 
that people however degraded and demonized have no relig- 
ious capacity. Their minds may be darkened by ignorance 
and superstition, but they are God's children still, and they 
can hear and obey the Gospel. There is no evidence of a 
single tribe being elevated by the arts and comforts of civil- 
ization. Civilization without the Gospel is profitless, and 
worse than profitless. 

Some think that heathen people can be elevated by inter- 
course with Christian nations. But who does not know that 
nations in dealing with one another are not always actuated 
by the highest motives ? England forced opium upon China. 
No greater national crime was ever committed. The history 
of our own Nation's dealings with the Indians is not more 
creditable. The history of these dealings is found in a book 
entitled ' 'A Century of Dishonor. " It is not a libel or a lam- 
poon, but a true record of shameful facts. The writer shows 
how treaties have been made and broken, how the whites have 
encroached upon their reservations, and how they have been 
compelled to move from place to place. General Grant said 
that "many, if not most, of our Indian wars originated in 
broken promises and wrongs inflicted by us." What the 
Indian has seen of the white man has not given him a very 
exalted conception of Christian civilization. Our treatment of 
the Chinese has been no better. They came here at our ur- 
gent invitation. They came under the shield of a treaty. 
They heard that this was an asylum for the oppressed of all 
lands, that here every man had an indestructible right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They have been 
insulted and plundered and murdered without redress. It was 
said, V We must seize these cunning brutes by the throats, 
we must throttle them until their hearts cease to beat, and 
then throw them into the sea." What opinion will the 
400,000,000 whom they represent have of our so-called 



192 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

Christian nation ? What have they seen to induce them to 
renounce Confucius and Buddha and accept Jesus as Lord? 
Is it strange that the Chinese thought of sending missiona- 
ries to the United States to humanize and civilize the peo- 
ple? 

The last Tasmanian died in 1876. That people per- 
ished before the vices and barbarity of the whites. They were 
shot down like wild beasts. Regular hunts were undertaken 
against them. A convict told a native that if he would fire 
a gun into his ear, he would have a pleasant sensation. He 
did so, and died. An officer amused himself by firing cart- 
ridges among peaceful natives. An Englishman made a sav- 
age woman carry her husband's head around her neck as an 
ornament, he having first diverted himself by the murder. 
One form of amusement was to catch a native and fasten him 
to a tree as a target, and fire at him. In the South Seas the 
measles were introduced with the hope that they would cause 
many to perish. The victims plunged into the sea seeking 
relief, and found it almost instant death. Others dug holes 
in the ground and lay down, finding the cool earth agreeable 
to their fevered skins; many died and were buried where 
they lay. The cry has been heard everywhere, " Clear the 
ground of the red, yellow, brown, and black vermin, that 
the whites may take possession." The Anglo-Saxon land- 
hunger has led to the commission of the gravest crimes. It 
is not before our civilization, but before our barbarism, that 
the aboriginal races are disappearing. Attila and his Huns, 
Genseric and his Vandals, Gengis Khan and his Mongols, 
have not done worse than the Christian nations of our day. 
What is true of England and America is true of Spain, Hol- 
land, Portugal and France. The Maori, the Hottentot, the 
Zulu, the Red Indian, and the Aztec will rise up in judg- 
ment and condemn the strong nations that first debauched 
and then destroyed them. 

Some think that this can be -done by commerce. They 
think that by introducing the comforts and conveniences of 
Christendom among them, they can implant a desire for im- 
provement in every other respect. Experience shows that 
commerce does not regenerate. A missionary in South Af- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 193 

rica said: ' ' But for the British rum trade, I am confident 
that long before this the church in this place would be num- 
bered by hundreds and not by tens." Missionaries find this 
traffic a lion in their path, a millstone around the neck of 
their work. A Scotch Elder sent a ship-load of rum to Af- 
rica, and gave one missionary a free passage. The amount 
of liquor sold is enormous. The figures seem exaggerated, 
but they are not. The first letter in English from the Congo 
to the Archbishop of Canterbury read thus: " The humblest 
of your servants kisses the hem of your garment, and begs 
you to send to his fellow-servants more Gospel and less rum. ' ' 
The slave trade is carried on extensively in Africa and in the 
South Seas. It is estimated that 32,000,000 slaves were 
brought across the Atlantic since the time of Queen Elizabeth. 
Probably as many more were sold into Arabia and Turkey. 
The natives are suspicious of the white men. They think 
they are all engaged in the same business. Cameron and Liv- 
ingstone found tribes living in constant dread. Their great- 
est obstacles in crossing Africa arose from the work of slave 
dealers. They escaped more than once only with their 
lives. In the South Seas, Williams and Patteson suffered 
martyrdom because of this trade. In the Sandwich Islands, 
the greatest hindrance to the work came from the crews of 
English and American ships. They became furious against 
the men who had checked their lusts. They threatened to 
burn the house and take the life of one man because he re- 
fused to use his influence to have the law against prostitu- 
tion repealed. They declared their purpose to bathe their 
hands in the blood of every man who had anything to do 
with this measure. They raised the black flag, and had it 
not been for the energetic interference of the natives would 
have executed their threats. Seamen in South Africa hire 
ebony wives for the week or month or trip. If the world is 
not redeemed until it is redeemed by commerce, it will never 
be redeemed. Traders are more likely to innoculate the na- 
tives with their vices than with their virtues. Their influ- 
ence in many cases is like that of a sirocco from the lake 
that burneth with fire and brimstone. They take advantage 
of their ignorance and helplessness to rob, to outrage, and 



i 9 4 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

to kill. They treat them as hyenas and baboons. As a 
rule the men who go to a heathen country to buy and sell 
and get gain are not noted for their piety. It used to be 
said that men going to India left their religion at the Cape. 
A Japanese said of such: ' ' Their conduct is a scandal to the 
name of Christ. They are the slaves of Mammon; they are 
addicted to sensuality and profanity. They insult the na- 
tives, jeer and maltreat them, and conduct themselves as 
loftily as if each one of them was a Julius Caesar." There 
are noble exceptions, but they are not numerous. The 
trader is everywhere, but it is not by firearms and firewater, 
or by any other articles of merchandise, that the world is to 
be redeemed. Our L,ord knew what was in man. He said: 
' ' Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to the 
whole creation." 

Others think it can be done by education. But no peo- 
ple was ever saved by knowledge. Education does not pu- 
rify the heart. A German writer says that times of high 
culture are always times of deep immorality. No amount of 
information can renew the soul into the image of its Creator. 
Egypt, Greece and Rome had knowledge, but when they 
knew most they were given over to the most shameless prof- 
ligacy. They had the arts and sciences, they had poets and 
philosophers and orators, they had sculptors and painters 
and architects, they had great schools and famous teachers, 
but they held human life in contempt, had small respect for 
chastity, were ferocious beyond savages. They ran into 
every excess- of riot. They did things worthy of death, and 
gloried in their shame. We see the same thing during the 
French Revolution. The most scholarly men and women 
found their highest pleasure in the most abominable sensu- 
alities and in deeds of murder. These same persons sought 
always to display their mental cultivation in the most splen- 
did manner in public and in social life. When a poor, insane 
wretch was to be torn in pieces by horses, they expended all 
their pity on the noble horses that had so much trouble in 
tearing their victim asunder, and had no sympathy with the 
man thus torn. The fact is, no people have been lifted from 
a lower to a higher plane by the enlightenment and enlarge- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 195 

ment of their intellectual powers. They may know every- 
thing, may be able to solve all mysteries, but if they do not 
love the law of God because it is good, they will not observe 
it. Moreover, education itself depends upon the moral im- 
pulse. Seelye says that only as men become better mor- 
ally can they become intellectually elevated and enlarged. 
Education follows a moral improvement as the flowers fol- 
low the sunlight, but education is as powerless to secure im- 
provement as is a plant to secure the light and warmth by 
which it is quickened. Knowledge is power, but no amount 
of knowledge can do for the race that which it most needs. 
It may make the outward life more seemly; it does not create 
a clean heart and renew a right spirit. 

To the Jew the Gospel was a stumbling block, to the 
Greek it was foolishness; in reality, it was the wisdom of God 
and the power of God. On no field has it been preached in 
vain. For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and 
return not thither, but water the earth that it may bring 
forth and bud and give seed to the sower and bread to the 
eater; so has it been with the Word of God; it has not re- 
turned unto Him void. To many, sending the Gospel to the 
heathen is like pouring cologne water into the sea. When 
Peter stood up on Pentecost it seemed as if he was trying to 
sweeten the ocean. Society was never more corrupt. The 
first chapter of Romans gives an account of that age. Paul 
is confirmed by Juvenal, Seneca and Horace. The priests 
could not look one another in the face without laughing. 
The government was an absolutism. 

"On that hard pagan world, disgust 

And secret loathing fell, 
Deep weariness and sated lust 

Made human life a hell." 

The orthodox Jews were full of rottenness and all unclean- 
ness. They put the Prince of Life to death on a false charge, 
sustained by perjured testimony. The task seemed hopeless. 
But it was not so. The Gospel made its way in spite of ev- 
erything. In a single generation it was bearing fruit in all 
parts of the empire. The temples were deserted, the fires 
had gone out on the altars. The gods found few worshipers. 



196 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

The old faiths were swept into limbo. A Christian writer 
said: "We are but of yesterday, and lo, we fill the whole 
empire — your cities, your islands, your fortresses, your mu- 
nicipalities, your councils, nay, even the camp, the sections, 
the palace, the senate, the forum — the temples only are left 
to you." In a little while the temples were cleansed and 
used as churches. Historians, from Tertullian and Justin 
Martyr to Gibbon and Milman, speak of its triumphs until it 
placed its standard upon the ruins of the Capitol. Pouring 
cologne water into the sea did avail; its waters were sweet- 
ened. When Paul crossed the Hellespont in response to the 
man of Macedonia and began to preach in Europe, it seemed 
that he was engaged in an impossible enterprise. The peo- 
ple were as degraded as the tribes of Central Africa. The 
Germans worshiped Woden and Thor. Beyond them were 
the furious Goths and fiery Huns. The Britons were Druids 
and offered human sacrifice. In time Europe was won, not 
by commerce, nor by knowledge, nor by national intercourse, 
but by the Gospel of the glory of the Christ. Our Lord un- 
derstood human nature; He knew that the Gospel can uplift 
and ennoble it, no matter how low it has fallen and how 
degraded it has become. He said to His disciples, ' ' Go ye 
into all the world and preach it.' 

' ' The fiery tongues of Pentecost their symbols were, 
That they should preach in every form of human speech 
From continent to continent. ' ' 

When William Carey began his work in India he seemed 
to be pouring cologne water into the sea. TheEast India Com- 
pany regarded him as a lunatic enthusiast. The people were 
proud of their history, and listened to his message with scorn. 
But his labor was not in vain in the Iyord. The fires of sut- 
tee have been put out, infanticide has been made a crime, the 
exposure of the sick and dying prohibited, Juggernaut's car 
has become a curiosity, schools, colleges, hospitals, orphan- 
ages are found in all parts of the land, a half- million souls 
have accepted Christ as their Saviour and Lord. When the 
Sepoy Mutiny broke out, the Company said, "Aha! Aha! 
Now we will get rid of the saints!" But, no; the saints got 
rid of them, and for thirty years the Company has been as 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 197 

dead as Queen Anne^ India is turning her face to Christ, and 
opening ear and heart to receive His message. India has 333,- 
000,000 gods, but India's supreme need is the Christ who is 
mighty and eager to save. China worships the dragon. She 
pays tribute to the spirits of water and air. China needs 
Christ to bid these evil spirits depart, and to fill her marts 
and her homes with prosperity and righteousness and peace. 
Africa is stretching out her lame hands toward God; this is 
her deepest need, her divinest hunger. That continent where 
Abraham found food in time of famine, where Moses was 
rescued and trained for his work, where Cyprian and Origen, 
and Athanasius, and Augustine contended for the faith once 
for all delivered to the saints, needs Christ to dispel her 
darkness and to give her the light of life. The Gospel is all- 
sufficient, and alone-sumcientf We have it — we hold it in 
trust for those who have it not. Shall we keep it to ourselves 
and allow them to perish in ignorance and wickedness ? or 
shall we sound it out and guide their feet into the way of 
peace? May God open our eyes to see our duty, and dispose 
our hearts to aid to the fullest extent of our ability in this 
the grandest of all enterprises, the evangelization of the world ! 




J. A. Lord. 



OUR COUNTRY AND MISSIONS. 



J. A. LORD. 



John VI .-5-14. 



The incident is both a miracle and a sign. The history 
of Christianity has made this the easiest of miracles to 
believe. The miraculous has become the ordinary. Each 
success of the Gospel was as improbable as the feeding of the 
five thousand with five barley loaves and two small fishes. 
The analogy is close. The world is a desert place, and the 
multitude cry for bread. The disciples are comparatively 
few, and their resources seemingly slender. Philip and 
Andrew are with us, one to exaggerate cost, the other to 
discount resources, and both blind to the invisible. But 
Jesus is here to bless whatever His followers have in hand 
and to enlarge their store as they share with others their 
gifts. Individual effort and organized grace used to feed the 
hungry must evangelize tru-; world, while physical wants and 
a spiritual nature blend in every creature to whom we would 
break the bread of life. 

In considering the subject of Home Missions, we are not 
removed from the essential conditions of that primitive scene. 
Put America in the place of Galilee, 65,000,000 for 5,000, 
the church to-day for the early disciples, and the interpre- 
tation is plain. The element of growth must be added, for 
this is not the Old World, but the New. We are to count 
the many times 65,000,000 which will be here before the 
sixth centennial of Columbus' great discovery. 

The wealth of material would embarrass, only the text 
furnishes a helpful classification. Let us consider then : 



202 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

(i) The People; (2) Our Relation to the People; (3) 
What We Have or Ma} T Have to Supply the People. 

I. THE PEOPLE. 

Science demonstrates a vital connection between physical 
conditions and population. The tropics grow other things 
better than men. The temperate zone is the zone of 
power. Rivers, coasts, soils, minerals, have determined 
the present and are prophecies of the future population of 
the earth. Science shall help Faith number the millions 
yet to be born. Europe is great because it will sustain a 
denser population of civilized men than other divisions of 
the Old World. Proximity to the sea and a favored climate 
count more than immense continental areas like Asia and 
Africa. The seat of empire lingered long around the Medi- 
terranean, to be transferred to Great Britain, no part of 
whose territory is 100 miles from the sea. 

But America has the advantage over Europe in what 
Europe excels, and the productive area of Asia, Africa and 
Europe combined. The "Britannica" computes that Amer- 
ica has at least an equal quantity of useful soil with the Old 
World, and more than an equal amount of productive power. 
Europe is credited with 35,000 miles of river, but there are 
35,000 miles of navigable river in the Mississippi system 
alone. From New Orleans to Ft. Benton, the head of 
steamboat navigation, is as far as from New York to Con- 
stantinople. Wheat is shipped direct from Duluth to Liver- 
pool, and the voyage is half completed when the vessel loses 
sight of the American coast. 

Three-sevenths of the railway mileage of the world is 
within our territory, and San Francisco is as near New 
York in time as was Edinburgh to London a hundred years 
ago. Our steam engines hauled 575,769,678 passengers in 
1892. Isolation, which keeps nations undeveloped, is im- 
possible with us. The navvies of one county in England 
scarcely understand those from another section. There are 
twelve names for a plough in as many townships in France. 

Agriculture is the foundation-stone for population. We 
live by the soil or off those who live on the soil. Three 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 203 

billions of dollars is a moderate estimate of the product of 
agricultural America in 1892. We fed our own, and sent 
awaj r 325,000,000 of bushels of grain to feed others. This 
was done on six and two-tenths per cent, of our soil. Ac- 
cording to Atkinson, the crop could have been doubled with- 
out ploughing an additional acre. Allowing one-half the 
area of the United States for grass, timber and waste land, 
a most generous allowance, we have 1,500,000 square miles 
of arable land, capable of supporting a billion people by 
agriculture alone. The heart of this territory is the Miss- 
issippi Valley. I have traveled from Kansas City to Min- 
neapolis without seeing in one place an acre of untillable 
land. You may go from Galveston to the Lake of the 
Woods, and from the Lake of the Woods to the Arctic 
Circle without meeting a mountain. Chicago is nearer the 
Gulf of Mexico than to the northern limit of the wheat belt 
of the continent. 

Agriculture is in its infancy. The food and money 
crops — corn, wheat, cotton, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, 
potatoes and tobacco — of 1892 could all have been raised in 
Texas with four and a-quarter million acres to spare. The 
entire crop of the country, including hay and excluding 
horticulture, was raised on ten and one-half per cent, of the 
soil. 

Three hundred and seventy -seven thousand seven hun- 
dred and fifteen square miles were redeemed to settlement in 
the last decade. The arid region is being attacked by com- 
prehensive systems of irrigation — five counties in southern 
California thus gaining in value by the last census 175,000,- 
000 of dollars. Major Powell computes that 175,000 square 
miles may be reclaimed. Artesiar wells are discovering 
rivers under the desert. In South Dakota you may sink a 
well and water a section. 

Land hunger will stimulate the effort and ingenuity of 
growing populations until the whole wilderness shall blossom 
as the rose. Already agriculture is outstripping mining in 
the West. Washington has the highest average for wheat in 
the union. Montana outranked all the States in the aggre- 
gate worth of gold, silver and copper produced last year, but 



204 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

the claim is made that 65,000 square miles of her diversified 
surface will be recovered to agriculture, and that gold and 
silver will soon take a second place. The Dakotas were 
once described as " a blanket of brown grass, wrinkled a 
little at the upper edge and at the southwest corner;" but 
that blanket is changed from brown to gold, and has low- 
ered the price of wheat in the markets of the world. 

Eighty years ago, William Cullen Bryant gave one of the 
most expressive pictures of solitude in the language, when 
he spoke of ' ' where rolls the Oregon and hears no sound 
save his own dashing. ' ' The emigrant destroyed that pic- 
ture long ago. The ring of axe and saw, the clatter of farm 
machinery, the pulse of the locomotive, and the hoarse 
whistle of ocean steamer, might seem harsh to the poetic 
hermit seeking a pleasant place in which to die ; but it is 
divine music to the minister of life and the lover of men. 
The western coast is a gold coast indeed. In the sunny 
groves of California are the apples of Hesperides. The 
waters swarm with fish. The mountains yield secrets of 
fabulous wealth to the patient prospector. Trees clothe hill 
and vale with majesty. In the forests of Washington alone 
are 400,000,000,000 feet of marketable lumber. If, as Sew- 
ard prophesied, the Pacific is to become the scene of man's 
greatest achievements, then either on the Golden Gate or 
Puget Sound will be the metropolis of the world. San 
Francisco is but fifty years behind New York in population. 
Portland, Seattle and Tacoma are striving for the leadership 
of the Northwest, and may each have in the next census 
over 100,000 inhabitants. 

And the South country, what an undeveloped empire! 
The Southern States are but one- third as thickly populated 
as the average Northern State. It is a new South because it 
is a growing South. It gained nearly two billions of dollars 
in aggregate wealth by the last census. It produced more 
coal and iron than the whole country twenty years ago. It 
gained 175 per cent, in the growth of cotton, and added 
ninety-seven per cent, to the mileage of its railroads. It is 
the home of the purest Anglo-Saxon and native-born popula- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 205 

tion of the country, and therefore the most promising field 
for our evangelization. 

The East is not standing still. Pennsylvania added 
nearly a million by the last census; Massachusetts' per cent, 
of growth exceeded Iowa's. If farms have been abandoned 
in New England, it was not because farming was a failure 
there, but because it was a greater success elsewhere. 

But modern civilization demands more than the products 
of the soil. The myriad mouths of plants are all too slow in 
their assimilation of the inorganic world for the eager nine- 
teenth century. So coal and iron, gold and silver, zinc and 
lead, stone and clay, the hoarded treasures of geologic ages, 
are broken into to supply the wants of man. 

England was about stationary in population for centuries 
until the discovery of new uses for coal. One hundred and 
fifty years ago England and Wales had a population of 
6,400,000. About this time it was discovered that coal 
would reduce iron from its ores. Twenty-five years later, 
Watts made the steam engine practical; and steam, the 
newly-harnessed giant, awakened the slumbering energy of 
the Anglo-Saxon and multiplied his reproductive power. 
Increase had been only a million in a century. Every ten 
years after 1800 gives an increase of over 2,000,000. In this 
limited territory are now 29,000,000 of people. So the 
wonderful development of England is a matter of less than 
a hundred years! In addition there has been emigration to 
wherever the red flag and the triple cross of Great Britain 
have gone. 

What brought this about ? Coal and iron and steam and. 
the Anglo-Saxon. In a discussion of loss of power by Eng- 
land on account of the probable exhaustion of the coal-fields, 
Professor Tyndall said: ' ' We can not make headway against 
a nation which possesses the power of coal. The destiny of 
a nation is not in the hands of its statesmen, but of its coal 
owners; and while the orators of St, Stephen are unconscious 
of the fact, the life-blood of the nation is flowing away." 

But what has this to do with the United States and Home 
Missions ? Much every way. Home Missions will have 
magnitude if the nation possess elements which have made 



206 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

the mother country great. Here is an adequate measure; 
let us test ourselves by it. 

The United States has a superior soil and climate to 
England and Wales. It has fifty-one times the area. It has 
everything that went to the expansion of the ' ' tight little 
isle" — coal and iron and steam and the Anglo-Saxon. It has 
119 times as much coal, fifty times as much as all Great Brit- 
ain. Coal is mined in thirty-one states and territories. There 
are 400,000 square miles of coal in the United States, four- 
fifths of the known coal area of the world. There is scarcely 
a state without iron in the list of its resources. Fifty-five 
minerals and mineral substances were produced in paying 
quantities in 1892. Already we head the list of nations in 
annual productions of mineral wealth, with $668,542,530. 
Such a concentration of mineral resources can be found no- 
where else on the globe. I hesitate to name the possible 
population which our mines and soil will support. With as 
dense a population as England, there would be here 1,476,- 
000,000 people. Not a single natural condition is against it. 
A denser population can be supported here than in England. 
Only seventy-two per cent, of the area of England and Wales 
is cultivatable or fit for pasture. The child is living who 
will see 400,000,000 of people in the United States. The 
sixth centennial of the discovery of America will find one 
and one-half billions of English-speaking people on this con- 
tinent. The ' 'Encyclopedia Britannica" figures 2,816,000,000 
under Anglo-Saxon institutions in America in 2095. Want- 
ing to be conservative . I have put the figures at 1,500,000,- 
000. 

Glance at this outline map and you will have a visual 
representation of the geographical greatness of the United 
States. The area equals that of Great Britain, Norway, 
Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, 
France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Euro- 
pean Turkey, Palestine, Japan and China proper. These 
countries have a population of 676,000,000. No wonder Mr. 
Gladstone said that we have a ' ' natural base for the greatest 
continuous empire ever established by man." 

Do these things offend you ? Only believe. The Anglo- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 207 

Saxon is to dominate this world, and North America will be 
the greatest seat of his power. Max Mueller maintains that 
in two hundred years the English language will be spoken 
by more people than are now living, and become substanti- 
ally the language of the world. John Fisk says that the 
world's center of gravity has been shifted from the Mediter- 
ranean and Rhine to the Atlantic and Mississippi; from the 
men who spoke Latin to the men who speak English. 
Matthew Arnold said : ' ' America holds the future."' Emer- 
son wrote: "America is another name for opportunity. 
Our whole history appears like the last effort of the Divine 
Providence in behalf of the human race." Do you still 
doubt? You are in illustrious but discredited company. 
Fisher Ames stated in congress, at the beginning of the 
century, that "Not for at least a hundred years will that 
part of the country's population beyond the Alleghanies be 
sufficient to merit serious attention. ' ' But thirty-five out of 
sixty-two and a-half millions were here in ninety years. Ft. 
Dearborn was in the heart of what is now Chicago. Seventy 
years ago the commandant recommended the abandonment 
of the post, because the surrounding country would never 
support a sufficient population to justify the expense neces- 
sary to maintain a fort at this place. In 1858, with scarcely 
a hamlet forty miles west of the Missouri River, the ' ' North 
American Review ' ' said that our people had already reached 
their inland western frontier. It described the Missouri 
bluffs as a shore at the termination of a vast ocean desert 
nearly a thousand miles wide. It proposed to traverse it, 
if at all, by camels and in caravans. In 1867, eastern cap- 
italists sent A. W. Hoyt to see if there really was such a 
country as Colorado Territory, and to report on its mineral 
wealth. He wrote of the region as almost impassable for 
man or beast. Five cities, whose population aggregates 700,- 
000, are in the region marked ' ' Great American Desert' ' in 
the geography I studied when a bo}- . Benjamin Franklin 
thought French would become the universal language. 
Robert Livingston told Napoleon in 1803 that we would 
not send a settler across the Mississippi for a hundred years. 
Go down to the White City, stand on the bridge across the 



2o8 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

Grand Canal, look around you, and prepare to accept all 
things which any enthusiastic believer in America predicts ! 

The latest specters are immigration and the growth of 
cities. Faith will make both her ministers. The census 
shall be a Bible of hope. Of the five and a-quarter millions 
who came into the country during the ten years before 1890, 
much over four- fifths came from nations prevailingly Teuton- 
ic, that is, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic and Scandinavian. Not- 
withstanding the number of new-comers was double that of 
the ten preceding years, and constituted one-third of all who 
came since 1820, the ratio of foreign -born increased only one 
and one-half per cent. Immigration will go on. Europe 
could furnish us a million a year, and add more than a mill- 
ion to her own population. From the first we were a mixed 
multitude, which most rapidly assimilated Anglo-Saxon 
institutions and speech. In 1775 one-fifth of the colonists 
had other than English for their mother tongue. Nine- 
tenths of Chicago's population are foreign, or the children of 
foreigners. Yet Chicago is not foreign. Her churches, 
theatres, newspapers, business signs and street-car advertise- 
ments use the English speech, and prove that the moulding 
forces of the city are in the hands of the native minority. 
The experiment of the World's Fair local directory shows 
that even the most alien population under the stars and 
stripes cannot make the continental Sunday a success. 
Archbishop Ireland and a growing party in the Catholic 
Church understand that the parochial school is a fruitless 
struggle against manifest destiny. 

The president and the corresponding secretary of our For- 
eign Board; the chairman of the Acting Board of Home 
Missions; the corresponding secretaries in Missouri and Ten- 
nessee; the presidents of Bethany College, Kentucky Univer- 
sity, the Bible' College at Lexington, Eureka College, and 
the Chancellor of Christian University are foreign-born. The 
greatest nations are the most widely related. Herbert Spen- 
cer says, that ' ' the allied varieties of the Aryan race forming 
our population will produce a finer type of men than has 
hitherto existed. ' ' 

The growth of cities is not the evil thing alarmists imag- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 209 

ine. If the worst people are here, so are the best. The city 
furnishes the quickest solvents for the troublesome foreign 
element. " Pennsylvania Dutch" and "Creole French" 
would have disappeared long ago in Pittsburgh or Cincin- 
nati. Only the isolation of farm life perpetuates miniature 
Germanies and Italies in the body politic. 

Rapid transit is fast putting the majority of city popula- 
tions where they ma)' have advantages of both city and 
country, and in furnishing the conditions for healthy social 
and religious life. In New York City the congested wards 
increased only nine per cent, in twenty years. In the wards 
north of Fourteenth Street there has been a gain of one hun- 
dred and thirty-one per cent. Philadelphia's congested 
wards lost six and a-half per cent. , while other wards gained 
one hundred and sixty-nine per cent. Discoveries confi- 
dently looked for in electricity will make it feasible to live 
half-way between Chicago and St. Louis, and do business in 
either city. 

Although but a mere outline, the full extent of this 
enumeration might wear}' you. It is enough to know that 
the more intimate your knowledge of this country, the more 
its magnitude and its future impress your imagination and 
quicken y our faith. The yearly production of wealth is 
much more than ten billions of dollars, and is larger than 
the production of Great Britain, France and Germany com- 
bined — the three richest nations next to the United States. 
The increase of wealth for the last decade was greater than 
the whole wealth of the country in i860. The comparative 
character of the population is partly indicated in the fact 
that our sixty-five millions consume more than an}' other 
one hundred and twenty millions on the globe. Let the 
philanthropic vision of a friendly alien quicken our tardy 
patriotism to secure the future by wise and generous action 
to-day. 

In 1862, at the crisis of the great Civil War, when dark- 
ness might excuse even a patriot for not seeing, John Bright 
said: "I see one vast confederation, stretching from the 
frozen North to the glowing South, and from the wild billows 
of the Atlantic westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific 



2io MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

main; and I see one people and one language, and one law 
and one faith, and over all that wide continent the home of 
freedom and a refuge for the oppressed of every race and of 
every clime." 

II. HOW WE RELATE TO THE PEOPLE. 

Surely the multitude is both actually and potentially 
great ! How do we relate to it ? We are strong in the cen- 
ter of this wonderful land. It was no accident that made us 
a mighty people on either side of Mason and Dixon's line, 
and marks the confluence of the greatest rivers of the conti- 
nent as the center of our membership. But the gift of Prov- 
idence is no pension for our infirmities; it is a challenge to 
our manhood. Where much is given much is required. 
And God hath not so dealt with any other people. The 
whole field is mission territory for us. We have counties in 
the states where we are strongest without a single church. 
In some of the most populous states there are but a handful 
of people satisfied with being simply Christians. In twelve 
Western states and territories we have about twenty-five 
thousand members. In the Eastern States we are little 
known. In all the South Atlantic States and in all the Gulf 
States, except Texas, we are a feeble folk. We may not say, 
* ' The field is occupied, we will work elsewhere. ' ' In every 
community where we are not are men and women who want 
to be Christians, but who cannot be partisans. They are 
waiting for us. We must give them an unhampered Gospel. 
Each congregation represented in this convention has iso- 
lated members — East, West, North or South. Instead of a 
source of loss, they should be made rallying points for new 
churches. 

The evangelization of this nearer territory is not an end. 
The conversion of the United States to pure Christianity 
means the conversion of the world. So long as the emigra- 
tion of our members from the Central Mississippi Valley is 
partial loss, that long will we be hampered in foreign work. 
We are in a condition similar to the country before the 
Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Cession. The manifest 
destiny of the nation was to occupy the continent from sea to 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 211 

sea. The marvelous history of development could not have 
been written had the Mississippi remained our western 
boundary, or were its mouth still in the keeping of France 
or Spain. 

By every consideration which moves the hearts of men 
aright, we are committed to the complete evangelization of 
the United States. To this we would pledge our lives, our 
fortunes and our sacred honor. 

III. WHAT WE HAVE TO SUPPLY THE PEOPLE. 

What resources are in hand to accomplish this holy mis- 
sion ? L,et me enumerate : We have the truth. On all 
points of difference which relate to life, doctrine and the au- 
thority of Christ, we are right, and the rest of the religious 
world is wrong. I say this with the fullest charity and the 
most tolerant spirit toward the sincere people from whom we 
differ. If I did not believe it, I would not stand here to- 
night and be in the way of good men who were on the field 
before us. God is on our side. If we are faithful He will 
surely give us the victory. 

Without great wealth, we are rich in men of moderate 
means and growing prosperity. No people has a larger ratio 
of freeholders, farmers, merchants, lawyers, doctors, schools 
teachers, newspaper men and artisans than we. We are a 
representative American church, and not a class or sectional 
body. It is significant that such widely different men as 
Garfield and Judge Black were of this fellowship. Lincoln's 
father was a member of the same communion. 

We have a membership more like their preachers, and 
preachers more like the people, than others. The men and 
women of this convention, outside of preachers, could go out 
and build up churches. The preachers are not hedged in by 
that divinity which protects a clergyman or a priest. They 
defend only what is found in the Bible. Each is a law unto 
himself under Christ. Some objections may be urged to this, 
but success is its justification. 

The volunteer armies of America and the professional 
armies of Europe are suggested. Our armies would not 
show off so well on dress parade, but lose the officers in bat- 
tle, and men from the ranks would fill their place. Enthus- 



212 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

iasm and intelligent courage count for more than the docility 
of machine soldiers. Let the people have the same spirit 
that sent the disciples from Jerusalem everywhere preaching 
the Word. We cannot make too much of this unorder ly 
(not disorderly) , independent, intelligent, enthusiastic, clero- 
laical character of our membership. 

We have a mobilized army. Reports from the field, and 
the planting of new churches, indicate that it is in fighting 
trim. In sixty-five years' history we number nearly a mill- 
ion communicants. Growth is more rapid now than at any 
time since the beginning. Many conditions favor. Then it 
was foes without and fightings within. Nothing was settled 
by authority. Every question had to be worked out in the 
light of the Word. The discussion took time and strength, 
yet, somehow, there was surplus energy to spread the truth all 
agreed upon. It was like the boisterous march of Xeno- 
phon'sten thousand; only this army was marching to victory. 
Now no internal questions trouble. We distinguish between 
principles and expedients. Our whole force can be directed 
to the salvation of sinners and the enlightenment of the world. 

Then the work was done under pressure. The min- 
istry was improvised. Men followed, their secular callings 
through the week, and preached at night and on the Lord's 
Day. Holy women took upon themselves the care of their 
families, and suffered many things that their husbands might 
be free to proclaim the truth. Have we lost their secret of 
self-denial ? Do we love this cause as well as they ? Better 
have their heroic spirit in a rude age, than the refinements of 
the modern church without it! 

But some conditions have changed less favorably. Com- 
munities assume permanent shape more rapidly than fifty 
years ago. Oklahoma was settled in a day. We should be 
ready for such emergencies. We must go into the wilderness 
with the railroad, and plant a church with the birth of every 
new town. The city problem is a complicated one. Our 
cities are truly cosmopolitan. London has only two per 
cent., while New York has eighty per cent., foreign-born or 
children of foreigners. That we can succeed in the city is 
no longer a question of debate. Resourceful men and liberal 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 213 

expenditures are called for. Our whole general fund could 
be profitably spent in the city of Chicago. 

The very kindliness of the denominations (for which I 
rejoice and which I reciprocate) may be a hindrance. Press 
the timid, and he will fight; flatter the bravest, and he may 
forget his cause. Our young man goes to a community 
where we have no church. The girls smile graciously; the 
preacher is a gentleman. Who could be a martyr under 
such circumstances ? The social instinct asserts itself, and 
he joins their church. If he had been called a Campbellite, 
and told that he had no religion, he would have built a 
church, and have shown them he had religion enough of 
some kind to give them a good deal of trouble. You cannot 
hurt this way by fighting it. If I were inclined to be selfish 
(which God forbid!), I would welcome a return of the olden 
time when men scented the battle from afar. It was not the 
Philistines, but Delilah, who robbed Sampson of his strength. 

We must not rest in what has been already accomplished. 
Organized effort is to be improved and continued. Great 
victories are not won by soldiers fighting on their own hook. 
The solidarity of missionary interests should be emphasized. 
The spirit that would withhold an offering from foreign 
missions because it might be needed at home, is not the 
spirit of Christ. Jesus would not bless the breaking of such 
a selfish loaf. Any collection which the wisdom of brethren 
in convention assembled appoints, we may not pass by. 
"Help these women," and rejoice if practice proves their 
methods wiser than our own. Welcome the Secretary of the 
Board of Negro Evangelization and Education, and while 
contributing to his cause rejoice that you are aiding America 
and Africa in one. Study the map of church extension 
with praise for the great work done, resolving to sacrifice, if 
need be, to help mark red the many places thereon marked 
blue. I^ive with the missionaries in their patient toil on the 
foreign field, and share with others in their support. Thus, 
having fellowship with related and unselfish enterprises, you 
will be prepared for the most intelligent, the most generous, 
the most sympathetic support of the home society in spread- 
ing the Gospel throughout Canada and these United States. 



2i 4 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

But above organization is liberty. Constitutionally, we 
are the freest people in the world; practically, we have been 
hindered like others by the bondage of conventionalism. 
Timidly adopting modern ways, discussing methods and 
missing opportunities, vainly trying to fit everything done 
in the nineteenth century to the narrower circumstances of 
the first, have been serious limitations to our progress. It is 
time to recognize that there is no boundary to liberty save 
the conservation of love. Less liberty than this is the 
slavery of letter; more is the bondage of lust. Concerning 
the first, Paul says, ' ' Stand fast in the liberty wherewith 
Christ has made you free;" concerning the second, "Use 
not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love 
serve one another. ' ' 

If the liberality of individual churches plants other 
churches, praise God for this. It must be the * 'Lord' s plan, ' ' 
because it is doing the Lord's work. Be assured that God 
will disapprove no plan which promotes Christian activity. 
Let us be large enough and free enough to practice the 
widest eclecticism of methods; in principles we are to know 
only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Do not confound con- 
science with taste. If some trick themselves out in clerical 
robes, or wear a blood-red jersey jacket, rejoice that in this 
way (perhaps in spite of it) the Gospel is preached. Nothing 
is to be despised. Tracts, tents, street preaching, stringed 
instruments and tambourines, fife and drum, music and 
noise, broadcloth and jeans, Gothic temple and mission 
chapel, sustained pastoral care and exceptional efforts of 
evangelists, things past, present and future, are to be servants 
to that masterful love which would encompass and redeem 
the whole creation. We are to be such intense believers in 
the strength of our plea, the catholicity of the Gospel, the 
need of the world for what we alone will supply, that barriers 
shall be dissolved, chains of habit broken, in the effort to 
save a sinful world and reconcile a warring humanity. 

Take the possibilities of the printed page. You may 
have a library of Unitarian transcendentalism for the asking, 
or can spend an hour in any important railroad station in the 
country, tracing the fearfully made diagrams of the Advent- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 215 

ists, or reading their cheerless literature about the end of the 
world. But a Gospel of hope, a common-sense explanation 
of Bible truth, alike removed from superstition and rational- 
ism, can be found mainly in the libraries of our preachers, or 
on the shelves of publishing houses. Whatever may be its 
defects, our literature will inform and convince. It is both a 
literature of knowledge and a literature of power. Every 
clergyman in the land should be furnished free such books 
as " The Christian Baptist," "Life of John Smith," and 
" Our Position." The smaller tracts should be strewn over 
the country ' ' thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa. ' ' 

But to supply the needy multitude with the bread of life, 
we look mainly to the preachers. Given a ministry that will be 
informed, that will sacrifice, that will do and dare for Christ's 
sake, and the work is done. 

More preachers are needed, men of fair education and 
good sense, who have the gift of public speech. If the min- 
istry were a profession, they would fail, but it is a life, and 
they have been living that life for years. A sewing-machine 
agent, thirty-five years old, with a wife and two children, 
asked my advice about going to school, as he desired to 
preach. I said to him, ' 'Preach, and if you do good the people 
will find it out. ' ' The congregations he is preaching for had 
had no regular work for years. If he were not preaching, 
they would do without to-day. His salary is forty dollars a 
month — more than some school teachers get. It is a small 
amount on which to support a family, but he is building up 
the churches, loves the work, and is content. S. W. Crutch - 
er baptized a young Methodist lawyer six years ago. With- 
out theological training, he was called to lead a forlorn hope 
in a stricken city congregation; the church is triumphant, 
and the young pastor is sought after. If we could find a 
hundred such, Brother Hardin could put them to work to-mor- 
row. No church which requires a professional standard for 
its ministry will ever move this world. We need to multiply 
preachers with the facility of the Salvation Army. What it 
has done with a ministry drawn largely from the uncultured 
class, is a revelation of greater things for us, if we have wis- 
dom for our opportunities. Ordinary American society, the 



2x6 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

public school, Christian homes, and the activities of church 
life are equipping thousands of young people, who ought to 
give themselves without further waiting to the ministry of 
the Word. Professional training will never change that 
condition which we are taught to pray against, ' ' The harvest 
truly is great, but the laborers are few. ' ' 

While heartily supporting this impressed ministry, we 
should encourage young men of superior talent to equip 
themselves for work in strategic centers. Provide for the 
widest intellectual culture. If this takes them to Yale or 
Germany, all the better, unless they are made intellectual 
Brahmins to despise their brethren. Encourage our own 
slenderly endowed schools; be chary of criticism and generous 
in praise. If they are not rich in money, they are in men. 
It takes leisure to make scholars. I am glad we have been 
so busy that we can not boast. Young men have been 
drawn from school by the importunity of the churches. A 
main office of the improvised ministry would be to relieve 
our students of this pressure. Education must be an increas- 
ing factor in the work. 

But if we have all gifts and have not love, it profits 
nothing. A thoroughly consecrated ministry is the greatest 
need to-day. Eliminate selfishness from the pulpit, and it 
will sweep the world. Paul should be its patron saint. 
The love of Christ must constrain. The supreme blasphemy 
is to preach Christ with the lips, when selfish or even com- 
mon motives are in the heart. If we are preaching for bread, 
we are hirelings; if we allow salary to control our move- 
ments, we are traitors. Judas was not the last man who be- 
trayed his Lord for thirty pieces of silver. An amiable old 
egotist told me he was a two- thousand-dollar man. The 
one he called Master had not where to lay His head. We 
could put hundreds of men in the field if they would accept 
salaries of from $400 to $800. No one rejoices more in the 
prosperity of his brethren in the ministry than I. But with 
their prosperity I have a fear. I am afraid we do not suf- 
fer. Remember the words of Paul: "I suffer all things 
lest I should hinder the Gospel of Christ. Always bearing 
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus. ' ' Look at 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 217 

His hands, His side, His feet — "the marks of the Lord 
Jesus!" 

Why the complaint that so few young men enter the 
ministry ? Weed out self-seeking, and young men will crowd 
into the pulpit. Let us be moral heroes, and we will not 
want for successors. There was no dearth of men to take 
the place of those who fell in their country's battles, even 
though $13 a month were the pay. It is not our 
meagre salaries but our meagre souls which will keep the 
young men away. Is science more unselfish than Chris- 
tianity ? Aggassiz refused $500 a night to lecture. ' ' I have 
not time to make money, ' ' he said. No man that warreth 
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life. 

But it is not meant that the membership be eased and 
the ministry be burdened. The whole church is to be a 
ministry of self-denying love. I believe that God will 
greatly bless the rich or poor man w T ho religiously sets apart 
a definite portion of his income to this patriotic and heavenly 
work. Brethren, do we believe what we preach? Listen to 
the words of Him whom we promised to obey: " Freeh' 
you have received, freely give." Paul would remind us of 
our obligations. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that though lie w 7 ere rich, yet for your sake he be- 
came poor, that you through his poverty might be rich." 
The poverty of Jesus is the wealth of the saints; and the 
wealth of the saints would be the salvation of the world. 

I cannot rid myself of the feeling that I am representing 
the Saviour in my plea. If He were standing in this pres- 
ence in the flesh, He would urge the same things with such 
power, and demand so much more of your love, that you 
would forget my poor speech. I do not argue; I am a wit- 
ness, and my testimony will appear either for or against you 
in judgment. I appeal to you to give yourself to this work. 
Let a divine prodigality be the complexion of your gifts. 
Give until your friends say you are beside yourself — much 
giving hath made you mad. Give until even' stingy dis- 
ciple is ashamed. Give until the world says, " These Chris- 
tians believe what they say." Fifty years from now, what 
matter whether 3'ou lived in a palace or a cottage ? But it 






218 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

will matter whether you were ' ' good stewards of the mani- 
fold grace of God." Do you believe that the measure of 
heaven for you is the measure of your liberality on earth ? 
Then show your faith by your works, and go not up to hear 
the sentence, " You cried Lord, Lord, and did not the things 
which I said. ' ' 

It is a common illusion to reckon as past the age of hero- 
ism and faith. To the crowd of witnesses in the eleventh of 
Hebrews we add the martyrs of the early church, a few 
great names through the centuries, and close the chapter. 
But while all these died in faith, God has provided that they 
without us shall not be made perfect. Their courage on a 
smaller field, and faith with a narrower intellectual vision, 
shall not put ours to shame. If the emergencies of to-day 
produce no men equal to the heroes of Christianity's first 
triumphs, then America and the world will be evangelized in 
vain. Machine religion, a self-satisfied and esthetic church, 
may induce multitudes to change their uniform, but never 
their character. Not through the sign of the cross, but 
through the suffering of the cross, are we to conquer. In 
the spirit of John Knox, our prayer must be, " Give us 
America, or we die!" Science and invention are proving 
selfishness a colossal failure. King and congress are blind 
leaders of the blind. The Christ, the Christ throbbing in 
sanctified hearts, revealed in unwearied and self-sacrificing 
ministries toward unspiritual and degraded humanity, will 
alone transform, and alone will transform a selfish and ma- 
terial civilization and guide it through all dangers to its 
millennial glory. 

Thank God for evidence that the church is awakening 
to its power and its opportunity. With the martyrs' faith 
and courage, and more than their patience, the choicest 
spirits of earth are devoting themselves to men' s disordered 
souls and bodies. Says General Booth: "In an age de- 
voted above all to gain, I have seen many thousands of men 
and women give up home, friends, situation and prospects 
to become the despised officers of the Salvation Army, to 
toil in all seasons and climes for the good of strangers, who 
too often returned contempt for their love. I have seen 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 219 

ladies nurtured in the lap of luxury perform the most men- 
ial services for the vilest of the poor, and delight to go on 
with such work year after year, because they felt that the 
smallest effort was helping to bring about the triumphs of 
Christ' s cause. ' ' An intense enthusiasm for humanity is be- 
ing enkindled. The stately movements of an intellectual 
church have proven inadequate. Love has no dignity save 
the dignity of love. The long spears of the solid Greek 
phalanx stood poor show against the open formation of the 
Roman legion. Rome extended her empire by shortening 
her sword. Wellington's army on the Continent was in- 
vincible, because always ready to charge bayonets. We are 
learning to meet evil in close quarters. If sin abounds, 
grace much more abounds. Gilt-edged invitations to the 
Gospel feast have not filled our churches with the self-styled 
elite. We are going out into the highways and hedges and 
compelling God's chosen ones to come in. 

It is glorious to live when a world can be saved, and 
when our efforts will tell through the eternities. With tear- 
ful eyes and trembling voice, the saintly Karl of Shaftsbury 
said: " When I feel how old I am, and know I must soon 
die, I hope it is not wrong, but I feel I cannot bear to go 
and leave the world with so much miser}' in it. ' ' How 
highly has God honored us in that we are living now, when 
nature is unlocking secrets and knowledge abounds; when 
false religions are losing their power, when a Divine unrest 
is in the hearts of men, and when humanity with an inartic- 
ulate cry is seeking the Christ. Truly, 

"We are living * * * 

In a grand and awful time, 
In an age on ages telling — 

To be living is sublime!" • 

For centuries God has been waiting for men to take Him 
at His word, to draw on His infinite power for spiritual vic- 
tors'. He has been helping us spoil our enemies for resources 
to battle for the right. Gradualfy the wealth of this world 
has been coming into the hands of the followers of Jesus. 
Shall we, like Achan, hide the wedge of gold for our lusts, 
and defeat the army of our God for a Babylonish garment ? 



220 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back 
is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. 

' ' Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every 
creature," has been the condemnation of the church of every 
age. Shall it condemn us ? The call of our Captain comes 
ringing down the ages. 

' ' He has sounded forth the trumpet 

That shall never call retreat; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men 

Before His judgment seat. 
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant my feet, — 

Our God is marching on!" 




J. Z. Tywsr. 



DOES CHURCH EXTENSION PAY ? 



J. Z. TYLER. 

' ' He who builds a bidwark for the truth as certainly fights 
her battles as he loho fires from the parapet. ' ' 

The manifold work of the church cannot be done by any 
one form of service, for the simple reason that man's necessi- 
ties demand more than one form of help. There is work for 
the builder as well as for the soldier. But in the evolution 
of co-operative enterprises amongst us, it was reasonable to 
expect that we would co-operate in sending forth evangelists 
before we would organize for the purpose of erecting churches. 
And so it has come to pass. Our records show that while 
our first general organization for missionary work was 
formed full forty-four years ago, only one decade has passed 
since we began the formation of our Church Extension Fund. 
But this initial decade is sufficient to make known the char- 
acter of the enterprise and to test the wisdom of the under- 
taking. 

It seems to me a good time to pause and ask the plain, 
straightforward business question, Does it pay? A sala- 
ried agent is in the field. Churches and individuals are 
asked to contribute money to aid in building meeting-houses 
in places where our people are not able to build without 
temporary assistance. The management of the fund thus 
formed is vested in a separate board, elected annually, with 
headquarters at Kansas City, Missouri. Churches may re- 
ceive aid on condition that the building is actually needed, 
that they have done all they could toward buying the lot 
and commencing the building, that the loan asked pays every 
debt, that they give first-mortgage security, that the)- insure 



224 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

the house for the full length of the loan, and that the con- 
gregation aided will co-operate in all organized missionary 
efforts among our people. These are the conditions of se- 
curing a loan. Upon all loans a uniform rate of four per 
cent, interest is charged. This fund has received and in- 
vested, since its beginning, about $76,000, and has thus 
aided about 180 churches in different parts of our country. 
Over $24,000 has been returned the last four years. During 
the past year $5, 06 1. 25, with $1,896. 56 of interest, have been 
returned, and about fifty churches have been helped. At the 
General Convention held in Nashville one )-ear ago, the 
Church Extension Board was authorized to purchase suita- 
ble lots in special centers for church building, the money to 
be secured and returned as other loans. In exceptionally strat- 
egic points they were empowered to make larger loans than 
$1 ,000. Under this act the Board has purchased a lot for $3,- 
700 in Everett, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and has 
made a loan of $4,800 to our mission church in Salt Lake 
City to aid in paying for their lot. The map which was re- 
cently prepared and extensively circulated by the Board of 
Church Extension gives a bird's-eye view of the geograph- 
ical distribution of the work already done and the numerous 
and wide-spread calls now made upon them for assistance. 
In view of this summary, I repeat, Does church extension 
pay? 

I make no apology for the secular sound of the question. 
This is business. We are stewards. "It is required in 
stewards, ' ' says Paul, ' k that a man be found faithful. " It is 
required. Many of the parables of our Lord were business 
parables, designed to set forth the position and responsibility 
of His stewards, but, unfortunately, these parables through 
much theological handling have lost their business point. 
Take, for instance, the parable of the wicked husbandman, 
recorded in the twenty-first chapter of Matthew. That deals 
with the question of ownership. Open to the twenty-fifth 
chapter and read again the familiar parable of the talents. 
That throws a triple ray of light upon the question of use or 
investment of our Lord's money. We have no right to de- 
cline to use it, but are expected to invest it wisely. In the 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 225 

sixteenth chapter of Luke we have the parable of the unjust 
steward, which sets forth the often-forgotten fact of personal 
responsibility for our stewardship. These are business par- 
ables, and they show that our Lord means we shall conduct 
His business upon sound business principles and with busi- 
ness prudence and enterprise. We are under obligations to 
inquire into the wisdom and management of religious enter- 
prises, to test their soundness and safety, just as other men 
who are entrusted with the investment of fiduciary funds. 
Fidelity to our Lord requires that we consider whether this 
enterprise is a paying one. 

( 1 ) . It pays to house homeless Disciples. It is possible, but 
not easy, to exaggerate the importance of a house. It is a 
prime necessity of a business firm that it have some place in 
which it may conduct its business. A flock without a fold is 
in danger of scattering and being lost. A family without a 
settled home cannot develop the best elements of family life. 
To preach the Gospel and turn people to the Lord is the be- 
ginning of a good work which often fails of its largest good 
because the new converts are left as foundlings without a 
home. They are not able to build, and either find their 
homes elsewhere or drift back into the world. 

I have recently heard of two cases which furnish an illus- 
tration to the point. They are both on the Pacific Coast. 
A series of meetings was held at East Riverside, California, 
resulting in 100 converts. A lot was found and estimates 
were made on a building, but after taxing their ability to its 
utmost they still lacked $1,000 of enough to secure them. 
The converts became discouraged, they lost their grip, and 
the organization, I have been told, is almost beyond the hope 
of recovery. A little timely help would have secured a house 
and would have gone far toward securing their permanency 
and continued prosperity, and made that church a radiating 
center for all the surrounding country. In contrast with this 
is the work of Chino, in the same State. A meeting held 
there not long ago resulted in 100 converts. They set to 
work at once to secure a home for themselves, but found they 
could not succeed without some assistance. They made ap- 
plication to our Church Extension Fund, and, encouraged by 



226 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

the promise of a $500 loan, they have purchased a lot, are 
erecting a building, have employed a pastor and continue to 
grow. The timely help extended them was the turn in the 
tide of their affairs which bears them on to larger fortune. 

The earnest and beloved De Witt, of Tulare City, Cali- 
fornia, whose obituary recentfy appeared in our church pa- 
pers, spent twenty-eight years in evangelistic work in the 
West. He used to say that he could go into a community 
and easily enlist three or four times as many as could denom- 
inational evangelists, but that fully seventy-five per cent, of 
his work was lost to our people because he could not assist 
the converts in providing themselves a house in which to 
meet. The church-builder contributes to the permanency of 
the work of the evangelist. The builder of the bulwark 
holds the territory taken by the soldiers of the cross. A man 
familiar with our work in the West says that if church exten- 
sion work had been pushed twenty-five years ago as it is to- 
day, we would now be twenty per cent, stronger than we are. 
It pays to house homeless Disciples of our L,ord. 

(2). It pays to establish ourselves in growing centers of 
influence. The church extension movement among us is an 
organized movement into the growing towns of our country. 
Up to the present we have been very largely a rural people. 
It sometimes seems that our pioneers purposely avoided the 
towns, preferring to go with their message to the country 
school-houses. There they laid the foundations, and the tides 
that are now set toward the cities bear upon them those who 
constitute the strength of our city churches. In an unusu- 
ally large meeting of our city pastors not long ago, some one 
proposed that all who had been brought up in country 
churches should indicate it by the uplifted hand. All but 
one came from the country ! Perhaps, after all, the plan of our 
pioneers was the best for their times, and it may yet appear 
that they were building, even for the cities, much better than 
they dreamed. 

But times have changed. The tide of population is now 
set toward our towns and cities. While streams have been 
flowing into the West, filling up vast solitudes with new or- 
ganized communities, rapidly maturing the sparsely settled 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 227 

territories into States, the growth of our towns and cities 
has been even more wonderful. Statistics presented by Dr. 
IvOomis in his " Modern Cities," or by Dr. Daniel Dorches- 
ter, Dr. Simon McPherson and others who have given special 
attention to these matters, are not simply interesting and in- 
structive — they are even startling. And the causes which 
have contributed to inaugurate this urban tide not only con- 
tinue in active force, but are being constantly augmented by 
new factors, so that we seem but fairly entered upon the pe- 
riod which will make this a land of cities. 

These cities have well been called the nerve-centers of our 
country. The town to-day is a city to-morrow. The move- 
ment to establish ourselves in these growing towns in the 
rapidly growing sections of our country is a movement ap- 
proved not only by a sound business judgment, but confirmed 
by illustrious Apostolic example. You have certainly not 
failed to note how the Apostles and early evangelists sought 
these centers. The progress of the Gospel from Jerusalem to 
Rome, marking the boundaries of the record in Acts, was a 
progress from one town to another, and these towns became 
beacon lights of life to all the surrounding country. It still 
pays to plant ourselves in these centers of influence. 

(3.) It pays to be in the field early. First of all, from a 
business point. By being early on the grounds, suitable build- 
ing lots may be had at small cost. If we delay only a few 
years we will be compelled to pay as much for the lot alone 
as both lot and building would have cost. Here are three 
illustrations — one from the Baptists, one from the Methodists, 
and one from the Roman Catholics. About twenty-two 
years ago, the Baptists in Sioux City, Iowa, were encour- 
aged by the loan of $600 to undertake the building of a 
church. They raised $1 ,800 and built. They sold this prop- 
erty last fall for $52,000, and are now building two churches 
far better than the first. When I was in Salt Lake City two 
or three years ago, I was specially interested in the missions 
undertaken in that strange city. It seems that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, through its Church Extension Board, 
invested $3,000 about thirteen years ago in the purchase of 
one-half of a city block. I am told they have recently been 



228 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

offered $73,000 for this, same property. When they sell they 
will move into a section of the city better suited to their 
work and erect much better buildings. A third illustration 
of the business advantage to be gained by being early in the 
field is from the Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco. 
When that was yet a city of tents the Catholics paid $6,000 
for a block which they sold last February for the sum of $1,- 
500,000 ! 

But there are other reasons for being early in the field, 
besides these purely business ones. It is easier to gain a 
favorable hearing. The new-comers are much easier to in- 
fluence if approached soon after their arrival, than they will 
be later, when local influences have determined their affilia- 
tions in their new home. It is a great gain, also, to be on 
the ground and ready with a house to welcome our own peo- 
ple as they come. No man can tell how much we have lost 
because of our delay to be on hand to extend this welcome. 
But a still greater gain is to be found in the greater mould- 
ing influence we can exert upon the community at large by 
exerting it during its formative period. The proverb about 
the twig is applicable to whole communities. Why is it that 
our strength as a people lies almost exclusively within a few 
States in the central and upper Mississippi Valley ? Is it not 
because our fathers wrought in these fields during the early 
and formative period of these States ? It seems almost im- 
possible for us to establish ourselves in the eastern and- older 
sections. Why ? Because these have been pre-empted by 
others. It pays to be in the field early, and the Church Ex- 
tension Fund enables us to enter earlier than we could other- 
wise do. 

(4). It pays to conduct the business of the Lord according 
to business methods. There seems to be a vague impression 
in the minds of some very good people that to apply busi- 
ness principles to religious enterprises is to secularize and de- 
base them. The}^ should be carried on without forethought 
and method — such as these very persons employ in their own 
business — and should be provided for as the necessity of the 
hour may demand and the impulse of the moment may 
prompt. To provide beforehand, and in a definite way, for 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 229 

the needs which we know will arise, to provide the necessary 
machinery to carry on a religious enterprise in a business-like 
way, appears to these good people to be almost of the nature 
of sacrilege. Such method dissipates • the glorious uncer- 
tainty which should enshroud all sacred things. 

But our Lord teaches that business enterprise and busi- 
ness principles should characterize the work of His servants. 
That point comes out with great clearness in the familiar par- 
able of the talents. He therein tells the story of certain ser- 
vants who proved that they were good and faithful by the 
business enterprise they displayed in the management of their 
master's interests. This teaching lies upon the very surface 
of this parable. Recall also the withering reproof contained 
in His saying, that " the children of this world are wiser in 
their generation than the children of light. ' ' Can we sup- 
pose that He was pleased with this lack of wordly wisdom in 
the children of light ? Far from it! 

Let us look for a moment at the matter in hand. Weak 
churches need help in building. What shall be done ? To 
leave them to themselves means continued feebleness and 
probable death. Shall each weak church send some one forth 
among the stronger churches to present its needs and appeal 
for help ? That, at best, is a very expensive way and, in 
most cases, is impracticable. Shall the appeal be made 
through our papers ? That is simple and inexpensive, but it 
is also a dismal failure. The appeals that were flooding our 
papers a few years ago had much to do in bringing the Church 
Extension Fund into existence in order to meet a wide-spread 
want. It was found absolutely necessary to adopt business 
methods if any satisfactory results were to be secured. Some- 
body must look into the merits of the cases calling for help. 
Somebody must see that enough help is given in deserving 
cases to put them in possession of a house. Somebody must 
raise the money and look after its wise distribution. Some- 
body must see to it that those asking help are helping them- 
selves to the extent of their ability. Somebody must see 
that the help given is wisely used. Those who receive help 
should be trained to be helpers of others. Instead of the ir- 
responsible appeals made to our churches, the appeals should 



2 3 o MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

come through such channels as that our churches may know 
that their contributions will be properly applied. These 
simple, common-sense business principles applied to the case 
in hand resulted in the organization of the Church Extension 
Fund. It was begotten of the conviction that it pays to apply 
business principles and methods to our work for the Lord- 
that it is in accord with His own requirement. 

(5 . ) It pays to put one dollar where it will enlist three others. 
The secretary of this fund says that the churches helped by 
it generally raise three or four dollars for every dollar loaned. 
It goes upon the Divine principle of helping those who help 
themselves, and of so helping them as to develop this self- 
help. One great value of this method lies in the inspiration 
and encouragement given the people, under which they are 
moved to combine their own resources and undertake the 
work of building. The Methodists have two special funds: 
one known as the " Mountain Fund," and the other as the 
1 ' Frontier Fund. ' ' The first is used for the purpose of 
building inexpensive chapels in the mountain regions, and 
the other for a better class of chapels out on the frontier. 
For each $100 given to the Mountain Fund, they build a $500 
chapel, and for every $250 given to the Frontier Fund they 
build a $1,250 chapel. That is, for every dollar given to 
either of these special funds they raise four dollars on the field. 
It is really remarkable, this stimulus which conditioned help 
lends to enterprise. In almost every community there are 
many who would gladly contribute toward the building of a 
church, if only some one would lead in the enterprise and 
they could have the assurance of needed help from some out- 
side source. Perhaps as good an illustration of this as we 
can find may be seen in our work in Cleveland. Within the 
past four years our people in that city have organized and 
housed four new churches. Behind these enterprises we have 
had the Disciples' Union, composed in large part of our most 
enterprising and successful business men. The work — espe- 
cially the work of building — has been carried on under the 
auspices of this union. The assurance thus given has in- 
spired such confidence, that in each case the work has gone 
forward to its completion with comparatively little financial 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 231 

aid directly from the treasury of the Union. Yet, without 
the confidence which its endorsement gave, it may well be 
questioned whether the work would have been done. 

The full value of this feature of our church extension 
work has not been generally recognized. It is impossible to 
state it in definite terms. It is impossible to say just how 
many of the 180 churches which have been helped from this 
fund would not have been built but for this timely assistance. 
But if we may judge from their own testimony to the Board, 
we must conclude that many of them — very many of them — 
would not have been built. The loan gave them the needed 
life. It was the added section which enabled their ladder to 
reach the coveted fruit. The aid extended made success 
possible. Each dollar loaned called forth three others. 
That's business, and very paying business, too. 

(6.) It pays to make money do perpetual service. There are 
three ways in which we may provide the needed help: One 
is by giving it. In many cases this is the only way. But 
money given never returns. It exhausts itself in this one 
service. Another way is to establish an interest-bearing 
fund, and then use the interest only. In this case the fund 
would be engaged in some branch of commercial enterprise, 
and only the interest would go toward helping weak churches. 
In order to do much by this method it would be necessary to 
have an enormous fund. But there is a better way than 
either of these. It is to have a fund which, while it is used 
to aid in building churches, shall return, at regular intervals, 
to its treasury, to be sent out again to other fields to repeat 
its good work. The money loaned directly to the churches 
at four per cent. , to be paid back in four or five years, an- 
swers the same purpose as a gift, and it is saved to continue 
its work perpetually. This is perpetual motion applied to 
church building, and the man who discovered it merits a 
medal. If you look up the definition of perpetual motion 
in mechanics, you will find it to be something "which has 
within itself the means, when once set in motion, of continu- 
ing its motion perpetually, or until worn out, without any 
new application of external force." That's our method of 
church extension exactly. 



232 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

L,et us take an example: When this fund was begun, ten 
years ago, I find the name of the lamented Timothy Coop 
among the very first contributors. Hegave$i,ooo. L,etus 
undertake to follow this $1,000 through three-score years 
and ten, the allotted life of a man. Counting each loan as 
running to its longest limit — five years — it will make four- 
teen complete circuits. In each circuit, by enlisting three 
dollars for each one, it aids in building a $4,000 chapel. At 
the end of seventy years it has itself done the work of $14,- 
000, it has enlisted $42,000 additional, it has behind it a line 
of fourteen neat chapels — many of them having grown into 
magnificent churches — and with undiminished strength it is 
ready to go forth to repeat this record until the end of time. 
In the magnificent and manifold gifts of the princely Coop, 
where can you find a stream so rich in blessing and so un- 
wasting as that which flows from his gift of $1,000 to our 
church extension fund ? 

(7.) It pays to strengthen our base of supplies. The one 
great purpose of every soul that is in harmony with the Sa- 
viour is to carry the Gospel to the very ends of the earth. 
Every educational institution within our brotherhood ; every 
missionary organization, whatever its name and immediate 
field; every church enterprise of every kind, must subserve 
this one purpose of the world's evangelization. But, ' ' if we 
are to meet the enemy at home and abroad, and hold the 
territory that is already nominally ours, we must take care 
of the source of supplies, we must strengthen the local 
churches, and increase their number in the yet unclaimed 
territory of the United States. ' ' The well-established local 
church must ever be the source of supply to all our aggress- 
ive work in foreign fields. 

One of the first Baptist missionaries to Burmah sent home 
$2,000 to be put into their Church Edifice Fund, accompa- 
nying the remittance with these significant words: " Put the 
money at work in the Edifice Fund now, because it will do 
four times as much good in making local churches perma- 
nent in the home field now\ for when these become self-sup- 
porting they will send five times the $2,000 to the foreign 
field." Our church extension helps foreign missions by 



MISSIONARY COXl EXT/OX ADDRESSES. 233 

strengthening the base of supplies. The reservoir must be 
kept full if we are to send streams of living waters to the far- 
off, famishing souls of men. If we are to swell these streams, 
the work must be done by increasing the springs from which 
they flow. The local churches are the springs, and by mak- 
ing the weak churches stronger throughout this land, we 
supply the channels through which the healing streams are 
flowing to make the deserts of idolatry blossom as the garden 
of the Lord. America must be the principal base of supplies 
in the evangelization of the world. 

I need not, in this presence, speak of the importance of 
our own land and its influence upon the future of our race. 
The address delivered last evening on ' ' Our Country and 
Missions, ' ' by its logical array of facts and its lucid inter- 
pretation of our mission among the nations, gave fresh inspi- 
ration and a new sense of responsibility to us all. We are 
familiar with Josiah Strong's wonderful little book on " Our 
Country," and are rapidly becoming familiar with his more 
recent one on ' ' The New Era. ' ' They show that the prog- 
ress of Christ's kingdom throughout the world depends upon 
the work done here. They leave little to be said. The 
Pope's other self, Satolli, while speaking to their congress 
recently held in this city, laid special emphasis upon the 
thought that America is the key to the future. 

Does church extension pay ? Yes, it pays immensely. 
It pays in every way and by every test. It pays to house 
homeless Disciples. It pays to establish ourselves in centers 
of influence. It pays to be in the field earl}-. It pays to 
conduct the business of the Lord according to business meth- 
ods. It pa} r s to invest one dollar where it will enlist three 
others. It pays to make our money do perpetual service. It 
pays to strengthen the base of supplies. And these are the 
very things that our Church Extension Fund is doing. It 
pays prodigiously. 

What then ? It seems to me that several important con- 
clusions follow. First, we should press the claims of this 
enterprise with increasing confidence. The decade has con- 
firmed the most sanguine expectations of those who inaug- 
urated this enterprise. The wisdom of the undertaking is 



234 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

shown by its results. It has passed the age of experiment; 
it has proved that it pays; let us push it. Second. Have we 
not reached the time when it would be wise to add the annu- 
ity feature to this fund ? There are those who expect to re- 
member this work in their bequests. They would give now, 
but they feel that they need the income for their support in 
their declining days. But can it not be arranged that they 
be paid the four per cent, interest during their life- time, and 
thus enable them to see, ere they go hence, the good work of 
church building begun ? The security would be better than 
the average, and their money would be employed in the serv- 
ice of Christ, while at the same time it would be furnishing 
them an income. They would avoid also the uncertainty of 
a will. It seems to me this feature might safely be incor- 
porated in our method of supporting our extension work. 
Last of all, if it pays, then should we make larger invest- 
ments. This is business. When business men find a pay- 
ing investment they gladly increase their investments. So 
should we. While we are taught not to despise the day of 
small things, we must not be satisfied with small things. We 
have made only a beginning in church extension. We 
should plan for larger things, and then do them. This is the 
day when all matters of the world are conducted upon a 
large scale. Shall the church carry on its great enterprises 
upon any less broad basis than the world does its business 
matters ? Shall the children of light be behind in clearness 
of vision, in largeness of plan, in the spirit of enterprise in 
carrying forward the world's redemption ? I rejoice to be- 
lieve that the church is awaking to the demands and is tak- 
ing on better business methods. Large purpose must go be- 
fore large achievements. We are told that when the Scot- 
tish Church became disestablished and Dr. Chalmers and his 
party were left without a single church edifice, they entered 
resolutely upon the large purpose of covering the whole city 
with their missions, and they accomplished what seems al- 
most incredible. Bishop Taylor, taking upon his heart the 
whole continent of Africa, enlists the sympathy of the Chris- 
tian world, and they respond to anything he asks, because of 
the magnitude of the task. McAll, a humble Englishman, 



MISSION A A' V CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 235 

touched by the spiritual destitution of the French people, 
undertook the work of planting missions over the entire 
city of Paris. The greatness of the undertaking called forth 
a generous response from every Christian land, and more 
than fifty active mission stations are the results of one 
man's largeness of purpose. General Booth, the originator 
of the greatest modern movement in evangelization, has sur- 
prised the world by the results of his work. But he had a 
courage and grasp of faith which embraced the whole sub- 
merged tenth of England, and with a sublime purpose he 
planned a scheme that demanded millions of money. He 
presented his plans, and at once the response came from all 
quarters. L,et us widen our vision, enlarge our purposes, 
and dare greater things. The cause demands it, and Christ 
is seeking to lead us to larger achievements in His name. It 
is said that when Constantine was working out the boundary 
lines for the proposed city of Constantinople, those who were 
with him called his attention to the vast extent of the area 
he was enclosing, and expressed their doubt of the city ever 
growing to such dimensions, but his answer was, " I am fol- 
lowing Him who is leading me ! " Are we ? 




Ll^OYD DARSIE. 



CITY EVANGELIZATION. 



LLOYD DARSIE. 

Human life has no well-defined orbit. The nations do 
not swing in their courses as do the heavenly bodies. His- 
tory does not always repeat itself. The world of our fa- 
thers is not our world. Every generation is peculiar in its 
phases and conditions of life. Out of the ashes of the dead 
past a new present is continually born. Each age has its 
crises to meet, its problems to solve. The problem of the 
evening of the nineteenth century and morning of the twen- 
tieth, the morning and evening of this creative day in the 
world's history, is the city. 

The city is called "the Gibraltar of civilization." It 
may be so; but against this fortress beat highest the waves 
of drunkenness, sensualism, skepticism and selfishness. 
Around it gather darkest the storms of anarchy, oppression 
and misrule. The city will be the Gibraltar of Christianity, 
when it stands upon that rock against which our Saviour 
said " the gates of hell shall not prevail." 

We live in the age of great cities. The current of human 
life flows strongly toward the convenient centers. Like the 
magnet that draws to itself the scattered particles of steel, 
the city irresistibly attracts the wandering multitudes of men. 
Like the Dead Sea, it receives, but does not give back. To 
those who have once felt the fascination of urban life, the 
quiet of the country becomes impossible. There is a power 
in the multitude that attracts. The very vastness and va- 
riety of life bewitches and intoxicates men. Juvenal de- 
clares that old Rome so enchanted men. They used to pay 
for dark, wretched rooms a yearly rent, that would have pro- 



240 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

vided beautiful and comfortable homes in the smaller towns; 
but nothing could break the spell that was upon them. 

Charles Lamb describes the fascination of England's 
greatest city in these words: " I have passed all my days in 
London, until I have formed as many and as intense local 
attachments as any of your mountaineers can have done with 
dead nature. The lighted shops of the Strand and Fleet 
Street; the innumerable trades, tradesmen and customers, 
coaches, wagons, and playhouses; all the bustle and wick- 
edness 'round about Covent Garden; the watchmen, drunken 
scenes, rattles, life awake, if you are awake, at all hours of 
the night. The impossibility of being dull in Fleet Street; 
the crowds, the very dirt and mud, the sun shining upon 
houses and pavements, the jewel shops, the old book-stalls, 
coffee-houses, steam of soup from kitchens, the pantomimes, 
London itself a pantomime and masquerade; all these things 
work themselves into my mind without a power of satiating 
me. The wonder of these sights impels me into night walks 
about her crowded streets, and I often shed tears in the 
motley strand from fullness of joy at so much life." 

Whatever causes may combine to mass the people of the 
world in great cities, none may doubt that it is so. For 
many centuries Rome stood alone as a great city. Her 
magnitude seemed unapproachable. The Paris of to-day is 
much larger; New York as large, while London is twice as 
large, and scores of smaller cities approach her size. 

The London of two centuries ago was not as large as 
Brooklyn. Into the London of to-day you could put New 
Yook, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore and 
Cincinnati, and still have room. Eleven such cities would 
people the United States. To take a little jaunt through 
her streets would be a trip of 2,500 miles. Every month 
adds a city of 10,000 to her population. Berlin in forty 
years has trebled her size, and to-day is the third largest 
city in Christendom. Paris has had fully as great an in- 
crease. 

This movement toward the cities is marked in all coun- 
tries. America is not behind, and this is remarkable from 
the fact that so much of our fertile farming land may be had 



MISSION AR Y CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 241 

for the asking. In 1790 one-thirtieth of our population was 
found in the cities; in 1800, one twenty-fifth; in 1820, one- 
twentieth; in 1830, one-sixteenth; in 1840, one-twelfth; in 
1850, one-eighth; in i860, one-sixth; in 1870, one-fifth; in 
1880, nearly a fourth; and in 1890, nearly a third. 

In the seventeenth century less than a fourth of the 
world's population dwelt in the cities. In the nineteenth 
century, more than one-half are found there. 

These statistics, taken from IyOomis, justify the assertion 
that the w r orld' s problem of the nineteenth century is the 
city. 

The evangelization of the cities becomes the question of 
the hour. Not only because of their rapid growth, but from 
the fact that the city dominates the country. 

With its spider-web of railroads enmeshing almost every 
country enterprise; its great moneyed corporations dic- 
tating the country's policy; its colleges, schools, churches, 
theatres, lecture platforms and libraries. Its daily papers, 
employing the brightest and brainiest men, whose copies, 
damp from the press, are carried by onrushing trains into 
every village and hamlet, thus moulding public sentiment 
— it is not strange that the city should cast its spell over 
the country. It was so in the past. Great empires rose 
and fell with the cities. The light of Chaldea was extin- 
guished, wdien Babylon fell. 

Athens w r as the brain of Greece. The Eternal City w T as 
the heart of the Roman Empire. It is so to-day. McPher- 
son says: 

" Not only does St. Petersburg dictate terms to Russia, 
Constantinople to Turkey, and Madrid to effete Spain, but 
the whole of occidental civilization turns for its fashions in 
dress to Paris, in philosophy to Berlin, in finance to Lon- 
don. 

' ' In New England, Boston is the storm center. Wash- 
ington absorbs the attention of hundreds of political news- 
papers from Coast to Slope. All American roads lead to 
New York. 

" It is hardly too much to say, As goes the city, so goes 
the world. 



242 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

1 ' The Gospel must follow the autocratic lines of influ- 
ence. Our Saviour Himself seems to command it — ' Begin- 
ning at Jerusalem.' It was His own missionary method, 
obediently adopted by Paul, to make every city the nucleus 
of developing activities. The result was that opposition to 
Christianity came to be known as paganism, or the life of 
the rural districts. 

" If our civilizations ever should perish, like those which 
have preceded, death would seem sure to begin not in the 
extremities, but in the vital centers." If America perishes, 
she will die of heart failure, and that because, like Sodom 
and Gomorrah, there were not enough righteous in her great 
cities. 

The current that flows irresistibly toward the city is the 
Gulf Stream of life. Like that marvelous stream, that brings 
eternal spring to our southern shores, the country pours its 
tides of young life into the cities. Those whose faces are 
turned toward the city, are not the aged or the middle-aged. 
They are largely young people — young men who long for 
larger success than the country offers; young women who 
are strong, independent and self-reliant. Their feet brush the 
dew of the morning; their hearts beat high with hope and 
enthusiasm. Some of them will succeed; others will fail; but 
they are the coming people. Many of them are ours. They 
belong to us by faith and inheritance. If we have no foot- 
hold in the cities, they are lost to us, and we can ill afford 
to lose them, for they are the chosen, the enterprising, the 
self-sacrificing. They are the men, who will be able to build 
hospitals, endow colleges, and single handed do as much as 
our missionary societies. Moreover, they will have not only 
the means, but the generosity. Other churches are but too 
ready to offer them a seat by the table and a place by the 
fireside. In after years, when Bradstreet rates them among 
the millionaires, and other churches are enjoying the harvest 
of their generosity, we may not reclaim them. 

The city offers an unlimited field to the church. The 
maximum growth of the country church will be rarely more 
than two hundred. The register of many city churches runs 
up into the thousands. There is a reason for this: Christian- 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 243 

ity grows by contact. Life touches life. Leaven will not assim- 
ilate the scattered meal. Christianity makes her greatest con- 
quests where men are closely associated and intimately con- 
nected. A church like the first church of Jerusalem, with 
her thousands of members, is possible only in the city. The 
great evangelists of the nineteenth century know this. Like 
Paul, they make the city their theatre of action, and almost 
parallel Pentecost in their records of conversions. 

Here too, we find a large field for the employment and 
development of young Christians, by reason of the variety of 
Christian work. The various mission points, the temper- 
ance work, benevolent societies, hospitals and asylums, all 
afford opportunities for Christian service and ministry. 

The Christian's environment has much to do with his 
development. Life in the city is intense and vigorous. 
Everybody is on the move. Men become almost feverish in 
their thought and action. The church adapts itself to these 
conditions. It has no time for the two-hour sermon of 
twenty years ago. The nineteenth century demands truth 
boiled down, facts more than theories, results rather than 
processes. 

The preacher who gets a hold on the present age, must 
have the brain of a Henry Ward Beecher and the tongue of 
a Phillips Brooks. The church whose faith is earnest, 
scriptural, adapted to the present while looking to the future, 
intensely practical, lovingly charitable, in fact most Christ- 
like, is the church for the times. 

The city holds out especial inducements to the Disciples 
of Christ. We believe that we have a Divine mission to re- 
store the primitive church, to bridge the chasms that divide 
Christendom. 

If our plea and position are to take the world, we must first 
take the cities. Here we may expect to make the largest 
progress, because the lines of prejudice are less sharply 
drawn. Christian people do not accentuate their differences, 
— when great opportunities demand their co-operation. 

Dangers drive men together for self-protection. When 
Dr. McPherson came to Chicago some years ago, he was 
agreeably surprised by the warm welcome of all the preachers. 



244 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

He asked a Baptist neighbor to explain this heartiness of fel- 
lowship. He said : " Don't you see that we have such a 
task in fighting the Devil, that we have neither time nor 
energy left to fight one another ?" It is so everywhere. The 
smoke and dust of the battle, which the pioneers fought are 
fast clearing away ; men see more clearly when their passions 
are cool. 

Church union will come, when it presses upon men as the 
great need of the hour. The Disciples are treated with 
courtesy and consideration in the cities. They are given a 
kind and respectful hearing. This is our opportunity. The 
Disciples, in some respects, are well adapted to city work. 
The most vexing problem of the present is the estrangement 
of the masses. How can we reach them ? is the cry from 
every pulpit. The environment of many churches unfits 
them for a people's church. Their church policy is opposed 
to it. One church aims to reach only the cultured and emi- 
nently respectable. Another claims to be the church of 
fashion and society. 

Many of these churches have totally lost the evangelistic 
spirit. They are abiding in the beautiful tabernacles, which 
they have built, while the world lies perishing at their feet. 
They have forgotten to hear Him who says, ' ' Preach the 
Gospel to every creature." They are spending all their 
time and strength upon self-culture. They are dying of 
spiritual dyspepsia, due to over- feeding and lack of exercise. 
As Strong says : ' ' They are teaching the most intelligent, 
medicating the healthiest; in fact, salting the salt, and fast 
losing its savor; while the people most needing the church, 
and whom the church most needs, are neglected and per- 
ishing. ' ' 

The wealthy and fashionable districts in the city are 
thickly studded with churches, while the needy districts are 
destitute of church accommodations. 

The ' 'Interior' ' says that in Chicago there is a district con- 
taining fifty thousand people, with Sunday-school accommo- 
dations for only two thousand; that the churches do not care 
for that district — they are looking after the avenues; and 



MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 245 

yet 7,200 boys and girls were arrested for petty crimes in this 
district in one year! 

In New York there is a section containing 50,000 people, 
with church accommodations for 400. Yet these very people 
the church most needs. L,oomis says: "No words can tell 
how tremendous is the importance of giving to our working 
people the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. As 
water cannot be boiled by applying heat at the top, so society 
cannot be saved by a religion of the upper classes. Chris- 
tianity, from the nature of it, cannot remain the religion of a 
class; it must be the religion of the whole people, or that of 
none. 

' ' The men who rule in our country spring from the ranks 
of the lowly. They are not delicately brought up, nor 
clothed in soft raiment. They are men who inherit from 
their fathers iron constitutions, used to toil and sweat. Men 
whom early hardships have taught patience and endurance; 
who, amid the difficulties of poverty, have grown strong 
with struggling. The humble homes which have sent out 
such men, have been homes of piety. Such homes are de- 
creasing. What if our future leaders are being reared in 
Roman Catholic households, or cradled by the firesides of 
unbelief ! Woe to the nation whose cottages have no Bibles!' ' 
The church's hope and strength, as well as that of the 
nation, lies in the humble homes of the working men. 
Burns looks into the cotter's home; he sees the Bible on the 
knees of the man of toil; he hears their humble hymn and 
prayer, and cries : 

" Compared with this, how poor religion's pride, 

In all the pomp of method and of art ! 
Where men display to congregations wide 

Devotion's every grace except the heart, 
The power, incensed, the pageant will desert — 

The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole; 
But haply, in some cottage far apart, 

May hear well pleased the language of the soul. 
From scenes like these, Old Scotia's grandeur springs, 

That makes her loved at home, revered abroad — 
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, 
An honest man's the noblest work of God!" 
I verily believe that the Disciples of Christ, with their 



246 MISSIONARY CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

simple theology, their democratic form of church government, 
their plain but substantial church buildings, with the Gospel 
that attracted and reached the masses in the early centuries, 
are the people to solve this most perplexing problem. 

If the foregoing be true; if the rush of the age is toward 
the city; if our best blood is being poured in there; if the city 
is the great battle-ground toward which the armies of Christ 
and anti- Christ are pressing; if we are so adapted for the 
field, what are we doing to possess this goodly territory ? 
Our people have been slow to see a good thing. The splen- 
did opportunities of a half-century ago, to enter the cities of 
the East have passed away forever. It remains to be seen 
if we shall be the " country people" of the West also. If so, 
our history is already made, for the church of the city is the 
church of the future. 

Something has been done in the last decade, but it is only 
a feeble beginning. We must lay the city's cry on the 
hearts of our moneyed men. We need men, consecrated 
men, more than plans; and money more than gilded words. 
We need enterprise, forethought and concerted action among 
our city churches. We need the moral and financial sup- 
port of consecrated men, who will say, " Go ahead, and we 
will stand behind the enterprise." We need more faith in 
God and His people. The words of the Master, ' ' According 
to your faith, so be it unto you," are especially true of such 
work. Our Methodist brethren take them literally, and 
build a fifty thousand dollar church on a ten thousand dollar 
subscription list, and they raise the money, too, on dedica- 
tion day. We may confidently expect the moral and finan- 
cial support of the community where the church is located, 
and when a third of the money is in sight, it is time to 
begin. 

Our large city churches need the mission-planting spirit. 
It is essential to their life. " He that watereth shall himself 
be watered, " is as true of churches as of individuals. There 
is latent power in all our churches — undeveloped Christians 
because the places are all filled; they cannot grow, for they 
are crowded out. If they remain, their example will be dis- 
astrous to the home church. Placed in a new field, they at 



MISSION A R ) ' COX I 'ENTION < / DDR ESSES. 247 

once accept new responsibilities and service. Their example 
is inspiring and re-acts on the home church. The church 
that finds no outlet for the inflowing current, will in time 
stagnate, and other churches will be poisoned by its deadly- 
miasma of selfishness and self-satisfaction. 

There need be no fear of the mother church dying from 
exhaustion. God and nature take care of mothers who rear 
large families. It is the inflowing and outflowing current 
that invigorates the church, as the annual rise and fall of the 
Nile brings surpassing fertility to her shores. 

The work of cit}^ evangelization is so scriptural, so 
simple and so natural, that it is a wonder we have not 
always been at it. It only needs a few simple rules of or- 
ganization; the enlistment and representation of all the 
churches; the selection of a mission point; the gift of a lot 
from some real-estate dealer who knows the value of a 
church near his allotment; a small chapel; a Sunday-school 
organized; a meeting held; a church established; a pastor 
called; the nurturing care of the mother church; and the 
work is done. A little confidence is all that is needed. A 
handful of brethren, who will put their heads, hands and 
pocket-books together, can give the confidence, and it won't 
cost them very much either. 

Brethren of the Disciples, the da} 7 of opportunity is upon 
us. It is the " nick of time." Cities will not always grow. 
Lots may not always be had for the asking. Communities 
will not always be destitute of churches. Shall we be equal 
to the emergency ? 

In conclusion, shall we not say with Dr. Guthrie, ' ' I 
bless God for cities?" I recognize a wise and gracious 
Providence in their existence. The world had not been 
what it is without them. Cities have been as lamps of light 
along the pathway of humanity and religion. Within them 
science has given birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind 
their walls freedom has fought her noblest battles. They 
have stood on the surface of the earth like great break- 
waters, rolling back the swelling tide of oppression. Cities 
have been the cradle of human liberty. Having, therefore, 
no sympathy with those who, regarding them as the ex- 



248 MISSION A R Y CONVENTION ADDRESSES. 

crescences of a tree or the tumors of a disease, would rase 
our cities to the ground, I bless God for the cities. I think 
it is Strong who says, ' ' The first city was founded by a 
murderer." From that day to this, sin and violence and 
crime have ever defiled the city. It shall not be always so. 
Where sin abounds, grace shall much more abound. The 
stronghold of Satan shall yet become the city that hath 
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. For when 
the last great battle is fought and the last victory won, 
the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. John then 
saw, by the eye of faith, a city which he calls the Holy 
City. Sin was not there. Death was not there. Tears were 
not there. The voices of sorrow and sighing were gone for- 
ever. He saw the host of the redeemed clothed in white 
garments. He heard their song, breaking on the shores of 
eternity like the voices of many waters. O, glorious com- 
pany of the redeemed! O, city of the Jasper Gate! He cries 
in rapture, ' ' Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter 
in through the gates — into the city !" 



